The Silver Trio
by Kyong Kybis
Summary: Harry wasn't the only one with the traits worthy of a Slytherin, his best friends were in possession of them too, as hidden as they were. The Sorting Hat sensed them and decided that the snake's pit was their true home rather than the lion's den. The three of them, half lion, half snake, found each other and became what people would one day call the Silver Trio.
1. An Unexpected Sorting

**The Silver Trio – An Unexpected Sorting**

**Summary:** Harry wasn't the only one with the traits worthy of a Slytherin, his best friends were in possession of them too, as hidden as they were. The Sorting Hat sensed them and decided that the snake's pit was their true home rather than the lion's den. The tree of them, half lion, half snake, found each other and became what people would one day call them, the Silver Trio.

**Disclaimer: ** As this story is published on fanfiction. net, I am relatively sure that I do not own Harry Potter.

"_Oh you may not think I'm pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_  
_Your top hats sleek and tall,_  
_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_  
_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_  
_The Sorting Hat can't see,_  
_So try me on and I will tell you_  
_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_  
_Where dwell the brave at heart,_  
_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_  
_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_  
_Where they are just and loyal,_  
_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_  
_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_  
_if you've a ready mind,_  
_Where those of wit and learning,_  
_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_  
_You'll make your real friends,_  
_Those cunning folks use any means_  
_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_  
_And don't get in a flap!_  
_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_  
_For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

Harry clapped along with the rest of the hall. The verse about Slytherin didn't sound as bad as he expected it to be, the hat didn't mention even once something about Dark or evil. But about real friends, though the 'use any means to achieve their ends' didn't sound particularly nice to Harry's ears. Quickly he let his gaze wander over the Slytherin table again.

Most of them were watching the new students curiously and some whispered quietly to their housemates. There was less laughter than in the other Houses but it was there. Maybe, Harry thought, they weren't all that bad, like Hagrid had said.

"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry who was jolted out of his thoughts. The red-haired boy, however, did not notice and continued. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll." Harry managed to smile weakly. Trying on a hat was much better than fighting a troll but he still felt very nervous. The whole school would see him being Sorted!

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," Professor McGonagall said, now holding a long roll of parchment in her hands.

"Abbott, Hannah!" she loudly called out.

A girl quickly went to the stool, sat down and put on the hat. There was silence which was broken seconds later as the hat shouted: "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table on the right, which Harry assumed must be the Hufflepuff House, cheered and clapped loudly, welcoming their newest addition. This procedure was repeated over and over with every student. Harry numbly wondered when it was his turn. He felt a little sick.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Finally it was her turn! Quickly she hurried off to the stool and jammed the hat on her head, eager to know in which house she would be Sorted in. Her bet was Ravenclaw, she wholeheartedly shared their values, although Gryffindor wouldn't be that bad either, one of the greatest wizard Albus Dumbledore had been Sorted there too.

_My, my, you're a rather smart one, aren't you?_

The hat could talk to her, she was sure that it wasn't mentioned in any book that she had read, not even in 'A History of Hogwarts'!

_Well, it wouldn't be good to spoil the surprise. _

Hermione didn't know until now that hats could actually express amusement, there were always new things one could learn as strange and wondrous as they were.

_Yes and I'm sure you will learn a lot more strange and wondrous things here in Hogwarts. But back to business, in which House shall I Sort you?_

Hermione immediately tensed, the hat's choice would influence her future years at Hogwarts, possibly her whole future and career…

_Don't be nervous, I am sure you will do fine regardless in which House I put you, with that clever mind of yours._

She couldn't help herself but blush, luckily no one could see as the hat covered most of her face.

_Such intelligence would fit perfectly in Ravenclaw and you are also very studious, it seems. But no…_

What did that mean, wasn't she clever enough for Ravenclaw? Disappointment and shame made her eyes turn wet. Were the children in the Wizard Word really that much smarter than her? She had tried to overcome the advantages they had with consuming all the books about magic she could lay her hands on. Hadn't that been enough?

_That was more than enough. And it seems you misunderstood me. You are a very bright witch who could made Rowena proud but I think that though your mind is Ravenclaw, your heart is not. And this is what matters most._

Relieved at the hat's words that she was not stupid, she asked in her mind, knowing that the hat could read her thoughts: _So will you Sort me into Gryffindor?_ That house had been the one she wanted to be in the most, its reputation had been easily the best.

_All houses are equally good, no matter what people say. It would be good if you keep that in mind. And no, I will not sort you in Gryffindor, although your heart is one of a true lion nor Hufflepuff, despite your hardworking, loyal and kind nature. No, I think-_

_But didn't you just say that the heart matters the most and that my heart is that of a true lion, then surely that means that I'm meant for Gryffindor!_ Hermione thought, too panicked to care that she might have been rude to the hat for interrupting him. The hat couldn't consider putting her into Slytherin, their dark reputation was infamous, You-Know-Who, the most terrible Dark wizard, had been a Slytherin!

_Didn't I just tell you that every house is equally good which also means that they are equally bad? There are Slytherins who did bad things but there are at least as much good Slytherins as there are bad ones, and far more I am sure of. And the other Houses too produced their fair share of Dark wizards and witches, (even Dark Hufflepuffs weren't unheard of) although Dark also doesn't equal evil…. _

_But, but,_ Hermione stammered, for once at a loss of words. She couldn't disagree with the hat's reasoning. But for heaven's sake! She didn't act like a Slytherin and on top of that she was a Muggleborn. And that clearly did not mix well with the Slytherin's belief of pure blood supremacy. The bullying she would have to endure would most likely be far worse than the one she had to face at her old primary school. She had never understood why the girls kept harassing her, no matter, how nice she was to them or how many times she had helped them out, they'd still make fun of her…

_And this could change once you are in Slytherin._

_But I'm a Muggleborn and in every book I have read concerning the Slytherins it is clearly stated that they believe pure blood wizards to be superior to the rest!_

_Yes, they do but I have often Sorted students into Slytherin who did not come from a pure wizard lineage. This also includes Muggleborns and though they were first frowned upon they eventually were respected if they have truly proven themselves to be true Slytherins._

_But I'm not even a true Slytherin!_

_Yes, you are. You are cunning, determined, ambitious, achievement-oriented, resourceful, clever and though you hate to break rules, I can see that if the need calls for it you'd undoubtedly do so. Qualities which make you undoubtedly a Slytherin, though your cunning side rarely ever had any opportunity to show itself but I am sure that will change in the future._

_So you will sort me into Slytherin_. Hermione barely managed to hold back the sigh threatening to escape from her mouth_. __Well, if you say so, then it ought to be right. __I will definitely prove them then that Muggleborns are as good as everyone else,_ Hermione thought, with a grim determination blinking in her eyes.

_I am sure you will._ And if hats could smirk smugly, it would now_. You were one of the tougher one to sort, Gryffindor would have also suited you very well but nevertheless the better choice is…_ "SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted out the last word.

To her immense relief she could hear that her new House was applauding not as cheerful as she hoped it to be and some were even shooting disbelieving glares at her but there was still clapping so it was still a start. She quickly placed the hat on the stool again before she hurried off to her new home, here in Hogwarts.

"Well, she is irritating enough to be a slimy Slytherin, despite being a Muggleborn," Ron muttered, torn between relief of not being in the same house as her and pity for her that she was Sorted into Slytherin, a house which hated Muggleborns with a passion.

Harry decided it best not to answer. A horrible thought struck him. Would Ron, the very first real friend (except Hagrid) he had ever made, still like him if he was Sorted into Slytherin? The bushy-haired girl had been Sorted into Slytherin too and she seemed to be pretty nice although she was a bit bossy so Slytherins could really not be all that bad. But could Ron understand it or would their friendship be abandoned? Harry felt a pang of pain at the thought of Ron not being his friend anymore, though they didn't know each other more than a day, Harry had already started to really like Ron.

A nudge to his rips made him aware again of his surroundings. Ron looked at him and with a movement of his head gestured to the stool where Professor McGonagall was waiting, who was frowning disapprovingly at Harry that he didn't even notice that his name had been called. Fighting back a blush, Harry smiled sheepishly before he went to the stool, ignoring all the whispers about him. At that moment he only wished to be anywhere else but there.

Luckily he didn't have to see more students looking at him or rather at his lightning-shaped scar as the hat was dropped over his eyes.

_Hmm. Difficult, very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent. Ah, my goodness, yes- and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting…So where shall I put you?_

Harry gripped the edges of the stool he was sitting on rather harshly, making his fingers hurt. He took a deep calming breath before he steadily said in his mind:_ I don't care. Just sort me in whatever House you think I'm good in. _A nasty voice in his mind said that there was no such house, he tried to ignore it.

_You give yourself far too little credit. Well, if you do not care, then you won't mind to be Sorted into Slytherin, will you? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt._

_Slytherin doesn't sound bad but I actually don't want to be great, just normal like everyone else._

_This, I think, is impossible._ The hat sounded almost sad. _But being great means that you can do great things which could help many people._

_Well, if you put it this way,_ Harry thought, forgetting to ask the hat what it had meant with its first statement.

_Then Slytherin, it will be?_

Harry considered it for a while. He really did not want to lose Ron as a friend and possibly disappoint Hagrid but if Slytherin was the right house, he had to go there. And true friends stuck to each other, no matter what happened, didn't they? Harry wasn't really sure as he never had any true friends or even any kind of friend but people did say that often, so it had to be right.

Harry gulped before he said the one word which would change his entire life.

_Yes._

_So be it. May I also add that you have also many traits of a Gryffindor too but nevertheless I think that better be …_"SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted, breaking the silence which had reigned in the hall since Harry was put on the hat.

However, after the hat's shout the silence continued, people being too gobsmacked to even say one word. The Slytherins too sat there petrified, not even one applauding for him. Harry, feeling terribly nervous at the lack of reaction, put the hat carefully back on the stool, before he practically ran to the table where the Slytherins were seated.

Malfoy, the boy he had met at the train, gave him a calculating look. Another student, he had met before on the train, the bushy-haired girl, gave him a reassuring smile which he returned. At least someone was glad to have him in Slytherin. The girl, Hermione was it (?), quickly made room for him on the bench. Grateful, Harry took a seat next to her.

After a while, Professor McGonagall coughed, trying to direct the students' attention to the Sorting again. To Harry's dismay it didn't work that well, many students were still looking at him and after they had recovered from their shock of Harry Potter being Sorted into Slytherin, they had started to whisper. Harry tried to make him as small as possible, though knowing it was futile and tried to avoid catching Ron's or Hagrid's eye. He couldn't cope with seeing the disappointed and perhaps betrayed looks on their faces.

Maybe, Harry thought, Slytherin wasn't a good idea. But then he remembered the hat's words and that Slytherins weren't all that bad. _Being in Slytherin doesn't change me, I'm still Harry._

The fact that nobody from Slytherin seemed to say anything against Harry's presence at the table, including Malfoy who simply continued to stare at him, or rather didn't say anything at all made Harry feel optimistic. Or, again the nasty voice in his mind said, they would save it for later.

Trying to not do anything which would attract even more attention, he watched the Sorting going on. He stubbornly ignored the staff's table, although he could sense that some of the teachers must be staring at him, of fear that he might have to see Hagrid's disappointed look.

"Weasley, Ronald!"

It was his turn. He knew that his face must be green by now. Why did he have to be one of the last students to be Sorted, couldn't he have been somewhere in the middle? His brothers would forever tease him if he landed in Hufflepuff or worse Slytherin! He still couldn't believe that Harry Potter, who seemed to be a decent bloke, was a slimy Slytherin! Maybe he had been wrong that he could make friends with him.

He barely registered that the old hat was put on his head, he nearly jumped at the sound of a voice in his mind.

_Another Weasley, huh? Your family has the tendency to be Sorted into Gryffindor but I think I will make an exception for you._

_Eh_, Ron thought intelligently.

_Yes, I think,_ the hat sounded at that point nearly malicious, _I will Sort you into Slytherin._

"What?!" Ron shouted.

_Hush! You probably gave everyone a big shock just now! And there is nothing wrong with Slytherin._

_They are evil, all of them are mini death eaters! And my whole family was in Gryffindor, you can't put me in Slytherin!_

_Family has nothing to do with the House you will be Sorted in. And Slytherins are not evil, how can you know? Surely there are Slytherins who are bad but not everyone is. Look at, for example, your friend Harry and the girl I assume you've met before Hermione. They would have made fine Gryffindors but the Slytherin house seemed more appropriate for them. And if you haven't realized it, I am about to sort you into Slytherin too but that doesn't mean that you are evil, does it?_

Ron opened his mouth to retort but quickly closed it again, the hat had a point. _But I'm not even a Slytherin, I'm not cunning or believe in that' being a pureblood is the best' crap._

_You do not have all the Slytherin traits, that is true but still enough. You are ambitious and seek greatness, you want to surpass your brothers, make the people look at you in awe. Something which is a feature of a real Slytherin._

_This, this is_, Ron tried to protest but he knew that the hat was right. He did want to be better than his brothers and make the people look at him and not them. But that still didn't make him a Slytherin.

Ron could hear the hat make a sound which resembled a sigh.

_You really are stubborn. Don't you realize that by being put in this House, your dreams might come true?_

_I would rather have none of my dreams fulfilled if that means to be put into bloody Slytherin!_

_You are not being truthful and you know that. Don't deny yourself your wishes because of such a ridiculous prejudice._

_This is not a prejudice. This is the truth!_

_Maybe I should also point out that you are very good in analyzing and in making up strategies which will guarantee your success which you have often shown by playing Wizard's chess. Another fine Slytherin feature._

_It's just a play and doesn't mean anything!_

_Fine. If you do not believe me then maybe first-hand experience will change your mind. Maybe it will also convince other people that Slytherins aren't evil._

_You can't do that_, Ron was horrified. _If I don't want to, you can't put me in there!_

_I can and although it would be against the Founders' wishes I know that you actually want it but simply deny it because of all the things people have told you._

_I DO NOT WANT IT!_

_I can read your mind, every part of it so I think that I perhaps know it better than even you._

Before Ron could say anything, he was interrupted by the hat's loud shout: "SLYTHERIN!"

Ron was shocked, incredibly shocked, his face even paler than Malfoy's. As though someone else controlled his movements he slowly walked to the Slytherin table and sat next to Harry who had made a bit of space for him to sit on the bench and smiled weakly at him, unsure what to say.

Ron decided not to say or do anything, deeply engrossed in his denial. He barely noticed the applause which followed after another student was Sorted into Slytherin.

"I wonder what that old piece of rag was thinking. Sorting a Mudblood, a blood traitor and Harry Potter into Slytherin," an annoyingly bored voice drawled. It was the bloody git Malfoy with whom he had to spend seven years stuck in the same House! Ron felt even more terrible if that was even possible and he couldn't find it within him to argue as he too was wondering the same thing.

"Maybe it was some kind of prank Fred and George tried to pull on me, wouldn't put it past them, making me feel that sick," Ron muttered to himself and for the perhaps first time in his life he hopefully turned to the twins, hoping to see the two of them cracking up with laughter at the face of their little brother.

But what he saw destroyed that little hope he still had. The two of them looked shocked and horrified at him and even Percy looked terrible.

Ron slowly hid his face in his arms, tuning out every noise. "Great, just great. I'm a slimy Slytherin."

**A/N:** Hope you enjoyed it and perhaps leave a review. I'm sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes, English isn't my native language although I do try best. Hopefully you will like the future chapters too :D


	2. Welcome to the Snake's Pit

**The Silver Trio – Welcome to the Snake's Pit**

**A/N:** First of all, a really big thanks to everyone who favorited, follows or reviewed this story. I truly appreciate it :D You guys are awesome!

**Disclaimer:** I unfortunately still don't own Harry Potter, the Prefect's speech, along with several other things were taken from Pottermore or the books themselves although I have altered it a bit and added some things.

* * *

A tall and old man rose from the staff's table. Harry recognized him from one of the chocolate frog cards: Albus Dumbledore.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

He sat down. Everybody clapped and cheered, although some of the Slytherins, Harry noticed, did this rather unwillingly.

"Is he – a bit mad?" he asked to no one in particular.

"Mad? The old fool has gone senile. My father always says that he is the worst thing that has ever happened to Hogwarts," Malfoy sneered. His two lackeys snickered at his words.

Harry frowned at that. He was just about to argue but Ron bet him to it. "Don't you dare insult Dumbledore, you git! He is far better than you or your Death Eater father can ever hope to be!"

Malfoy narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to make a sneaky remark but was stopped by a tall, thin and a bit weakly built boy who sat next to him.

"Why not postpone that quarrel of yours for later? Some are trying to eat here, if you aren't aware of that."

Malfoy simply sneered but said nothing and began to eat the food which seemed to have appeared out of thin air. Ron was trying his best not to snicker, he'd rather starve for a week than find a Slytherin's remark funny even if it was at the expense of bloody Malfoy.

As all the others had already started to eat, Harry didn't see a reason why he shouldn't follow their example and also started to eat. It was delicious, far better than anything the Dursleys had ever given him.

He was just about to take a big bite out of a very tasty-looking roast beef as he suddenly felt a shiver ran down his spine and it seemed that he wasn't the only one who did so. The cause of it was very soon revealed. To his great shock, he saw a horrible ghost sitting next to Malfoy, who at this point looked as pale as the ghost. The ghost had a gaunt face with blank staring eyes and robes stained with silver blood which, Harry assumed, gave him his name.

"How did you get covered in blood?" Ron asked bluntly, looking at the ghost curiously. However, the curiosity was soon replaced with fear as the ghost stared darkly at him and said in a deep and cold voice: "I prefer not to talk about it and if you are wise, you'll never ask me that again, little snake."

The red-haired boy quickly nodded and promised in a shaking voice that he'd never dare to do that again, in his fear seemingly forgetting to appear offended by the address; the Bloody Baron seemed content with the answer.

The Slytherins soon began to talk after the food had vanished again, they talked about their holidays, about school and about their friends and families.

Harry suddenly felt a great sadness rushing over him, caused by all the people around him talking about their families. He had never had the choice to meet his family, Dursleys aside. Trying to put his mind to nicer topics, he tried to start a talk with Ron but it failed as the boy was still very upset about his Sorting.

But then he noticed that Hermione who was sitting next to him also seemed to be a little out of place too, what with her constantly looking at the other Slytherins and seemingly struggling to say anything at all.

"Hermione, was it?"

Said girl turned to him, surprised that actually someone wanted to talk with her. "Yes, I am and you are Harry Potter, I have already read everything about-"

"You have already mentioned it," Harry tried his best not to sound too harsh but he couldn't help himself but feel slightly annoyed with people making such a big fuss about him. Really he was just like them, an ordinary child, well, as ordinary as you could be if you could do magic.

"Oh," Hermione flushed, she obviously had recognized that this was Harry's sore point. "Anyway," she quickly changed the topic. "What are you looking most forward to?"

But before he could even open his mouth to reply, she had already gone on.

"I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very difficult-"

"Well, we will start with the very easy stuff first so there is no need to worry yourself about it," the boy from before butted in. "I think I haven't introduced myself before, I'm Theodore Nott."

Although his words were directed at Hermione he pointedly looked at Harry, especially when he introduced himself. Harry felt unnerved by the again calculating look Nott gave him. Hermione didn't notice though.

She practically beamed as she introduced herself too, happy that she could finally talk with some of her other housemates. "I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger."

Nott nodded before he raised one of his eyebrows. "Granger?" he repeated. "Haven't heard the name before. What kind of wizarding family is it?"

That can't go well, Harry thought to himself, although it could be only his imagination, he felt that the tension at that part of the table they were seated at had raised. Even Ron looked up, viewing Hermione with something akin to pity as if he knew what was going to happen to her.

"I, I am," inwardly she chided herself for the small stumble in the beginning. "My parents are Muggles, if that is what you want to know," mentally preparing herself for the jeers which were sure to follow after her admission of her true origin, not like she could have hidden this fact forever.

Unfortunately she hadn't had to wait long for a response which Malfoy kindly decided to offer. "A Mudblood sitting here at this very table, the table only worthy _Pureblood_," he snarled, putting the emphasis on the last word,"wizards are allowed to sit at. Thank Merlin that I haven't eaten too much otherwise I might have to gag."

Before a full-fledged argument could break out as not only Harry felt the need to intervene, Ron looked very quarrelsome too, the headmaster Dumbledore rose yet again, without most likely even his intention, interrupting the beginning of a very fierce-looking argument.

"Ahem-just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered." Ron gave a disgruntled groan at the headmaster's words as he had been too occupied with the coping of his feelings, caused by the Sorting, to actually even eat something. Harry pitied him, it had been a long day and before dinner he had been starving a lot even though he was used to not having much to eat. He could imagine how horrible it had to be to go to bed on an empty stomach after a long and tiring day. And he felt a bit guilty now that he had not thought of keeping something for Ron to eat later.

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." His unusual twinkling eyes wandered to the Gryffindor table, to whom he exactly was looking Harry wasn't quite sure of, although the huge grins plastered on the Weasley's twins indicated that he probably especially meant them.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."

At the mention of 'Quidditch' Malfoy proudly stuck his chest out, earning a few admiring looks from a hard-faced girl sitting next to him, even Ron's expression brightened considerably up. Hermione though frowned at the boys' reactions. "But I thought that first years weren't allowed to take brooms with them," she whispered to Harry who only shrugged in response.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

Harry laughed but he was one of the few exceptions. At the lack of laughter he quickly ceased his too. "He's not serious, is he?"

A tall (Harry absently wondered why every boy he met seemed to be so big or was he just that small), dark-skinned boy with high cheekbones and long, slanting eyes that made Harry feel a little bit cold, answered him, a big sneer placed on his face as he did so. "Why do you not check for yourself? If what the old fool has said is right, we might have one less imbecile to deal with." Malfoy's smirk had grown very big at that point. Deciding that he didn't want to give the boy even more opportunities to insult him, Harry kept his silence, deeming the remark not worthy of an answer.

The dark-skinned boy narrowed his eyes at the lack of reaction but turned when Dumbledore addressed them again. "And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Several of the Slytherins rolled their eyes at the headmaster's announcement, some were shooting him incredulous looks that seemed to question the old man's sanity and another few, mostly the older ones, even groaned.

Dumbledore, either ignorant of certain students' and it seemed even some of the teachers' unwillingness to sing the apparently terrible school song or was simply unfazed by that fact, waved his wand, making words appear which must be the text to the song.

"Everyone pick their favorite tune and off we go!" he cheerily said.

All of them sang the song, which in Harry's eyes seemed to be a bit ridiculous but thought it nevertheless funny to sing, at different paces. The Weasley twins were singing the song in a very slow speed, being the last to finish the song. When they had finished many applauded them, Dumbledore being among of them but none of the Slytherins followed his example and looked rather relieved that the torture was finally over.

"Ah, music," Dumbledore said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

An older girl indicated the first years to follow her. She led them through the crowds of students and out of the Great Hall to what she called the Dungeons which must be under the school given that they had descended a remarkable amount of stone steps and that the temperature had dropped a lot. They went through many labyrinthine passages and seemed to go even deeper under the school. Tired, Harry wondered when they were finally going to arrive.

Suddenly the girl came to a halt just before a stone wall which looked just like any other, making the students behind her stopping abruptly. "Runespoor," she said in a clear voice, ignoring the questions. Before Harry could even wonder what that was supposed to mean, a stone door hidden in the wall slid open and to Harry's great surprise revealed a large room, the Slytherin's common room.

Along with the others, although judging by Ron's expression he did that with great reluctance, he entered the common room.

The first thing which crossed Harry's mind upon seeing the long and low underground room was that it somehow reminded him of a mysterious, underwater shipwreck but it still made the impression of being cozy despite its similarity of a dungeon (maybe because it was a part of the dungeons) with its rough stone walls and ceilings.

It was lit by round, greenish lamps hanging on chains, the light from the windows also radiated for whatever reason green light, giving the room a green tinge. It had lots of low backed black and dark green leather sofas with buttons and chairs, some little elegant-looking dark wood tables and another small, round and green table on which two candles stood, right next to the fireplace.

A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece, on it several skulls of, for Harry unknown, creatures and on the wand, right above the chimney, hung a big crest of a stoned snake, having an emerald as its eye. Strangely, Harry had the urge to actually talk to it but brushed it off, directing his attention to the girl who was about to give them a speech.

"Congratulations! I'm Prefect Gemma Farley, and I'm delighted to welcome you to the Slytherin House. Our emblem is the serpent, the wisest of creatures; our house colors are emerald green and silver, and our common room lies behind a concealed entrance down in the dungeons. As you'll see, its windows look out into the depths of the Hogwarts Lake. We often see the giant squid swooshing by – and sometimes more interesting creatures. We like to feel that our hangout has the aura of a mysterious, underwater shipwreck."

Harry smiled, so he was not the only one who had thought so. Even Ron looked awed at the fact that they were currently under the Hogwarts Lake and observed the windows as though he was hoping to spot the giant squid.

"Now, there are a few things you should know about Slytherin – and a few you should forget. Firstly, let's dispel a few myths. You might have heard rumors about the Slytherin house – that we're all into the Dark Arts, and will only talk to you if your great-grandfather was a famous wizard and rubbish like that. Well, you don't want to believe everything you hear from competing houses. I'm not denying that we've produced our share of Dark wizards, but so have the other three houses – they just don't like admitting it. And yes, we have traditionally tended to take students who come from long lines of witches and wizards, but nowadays you'll find plenty of people in Slytherin house who have at least one Muggle parent."

At that, Farley gave Hermione a small, encouraging smile which she hesitantly returned. While she was relieved that not all of the Slytherins seemed to harbor a grudge against non-Pureblood wizards, she still had her worries. Her housemates with whom she was in the same year did seem to mind about blood status as she had been already insulted because of that and no one, except Harry and Ron, felt inclined to say anything against the offending remarks. A sigh nearly escaped from her mouth, why was it so difficult to just get along with her fellow housemates?

Ron barely managed to restrain himself from snorting in disbelief. Sure! Slytherins loved Muggleborns which was clearly shown by Hermione's enthusiastic greeting. There was no better welcome than getting some insults thrown at your face. And Slytherins not being totally into Dark magic? Of course as not nearly every single damn of them was a child of a bloody Death Eater whose crimes he had been often told and just listening to that sickness, twistedness and evilness of what they had done made him want to puke, throw some curses at those slimy Slytherins or just leave as much distance as possible between them, preferably the last two ones.

The Prefect who did not notice the distress of the two Slytherins simply went on with her speech.

"Here's a little-known fact that the other three houses don't bring up much: Merlin was a Slytherin. " Harry who had already heard about him in some books and films did not know or expected that he really existed which by now should really be no surprise. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Ron whose mouth was wide open in surprise and Hermione looking even more excited than she had already been. Either that Merlin guy was really famous or the fact that he had been in Slytherin must be a really big secret, maybe even both.

"Yes, Merlin himself, the most famous wizard in history! He learned all he knew in this very house! Do you want to follow in the footsteps of Merlin? Or would you rather sit at the old desk of that illustrious ex-Hufflepuff, Eglantine Puffett, inventor of the Self-Soaping Dishcloth?" she asked rhetorically.

"I don't think so. But that's enough about what we're not. Let's talk about what we are, which is the coolest and edgiest house in this school. We play to win, because we care about the honor and traditions of Slytherin.

"We also get respect from our fellow students. Yes, some of that respect might be tinged with fear, because of our Dark reputation, but you know what? It can be fun, having a reputation for walking on the wild side. Chuck out a few hints that you've got access to a whole library of curses, and see whether anyone feels like nicking your pencil case.

"But we're not bad people. We're like our emblem, the snake: sleek, powerful, and frequently misunderstood."

Again it took Ron nearly every part of his willpower to not let any of his disbelief be shown. Was that girl now saying that they should be pitied for being constantly 'misunderstood' and that they were in fact not evil after revealing that it was great fun to scare the hell out of other people by threating with Dark curses? Merlin, (he tried his best to forget for the moment that Merlin was supposedly a Slytherin) how weird and twisted was that girl?

"For instance, we Slytherins look after our own – which is more than you can say for Ravenclaw. Apart from being the biggest bunch of swots you ever met, Ravenclaws are famous for clambering over each other to get good marks, whereas we Slytherins are brothers. The corridors of Hogwarts can throw up surprises for the unwary, and you'll be glad you've got the Serpents on your side as you move around the school. As far as we're concerned, once you've become a snake, you're one of ours – one of the elite."

"Because you know what Salazar Slytherin looked for in his chosen students? The seeds of greatness. You've been chosen by this house because you've got the potential to be great, in the true sense of the word. All right, you might see a couple of people hanging around the common room whom you might not think are destined for anything special. Well, keep that to yourself. If the Sorting Hat put them in here, there's something great about them, and don't you forget it.

"And talking of people who aren't destined for greatness, I haven't mentioned the Gryffindors. Now, a lot of people say that Slytherins and Gryffindors represent two sides of the same coin. Personally, I think Gryffindors are nothing more than wannabe Slytherins. Mind you, some people say that Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor prized the same kinds of students, so perhaps we are more similar than we like to think. But that doesn't mean that we cozy up with Gryffindors. They like beating us only slightly less than we like beating them."

Why had he been not Sorted into Gryffindor so he could enjoy beating the Slytherins, Ron thought miserably.

"A few more things you might need to know: our house ghost is the Bloody Baron. If you get on the right side of him he'll sometimes agree to frighten people for you. Just don't ask him how he got bloodstained; he doesn't like it. As perhaps the one or two might have noticed." At that she gave Ron a not so subtle glance which in response made Ron flush, his ears as red as his hair

"The password to the common room changes every fortnight. Keep an eye on the noticeboard. Never bring anyone from another house into our common room or tell them our password. No outsider has entered it for more than seven centuries.

"Well, I think that's all for now. I'm sure you'll like our dormitories. We sleep in ancient four-posters with green silk hangings, and bedspreads embroidered with silver thread. Medieval tapestries depicting the adventures of famous Slytherins cover the walls, and silver lanterns hang from the ceilings. You'll sleep well; it's very soothing, listening to the lake water lapping against the windows at night."

A little smirk appeared on her mouth as she finished her speech with the words: "And with this said, welcome to the snake's pit."

o.O.o

The Prefect, Genma Farley, showed them the way to the girls' dormitories and left but not before giving them a last smirk, accompanied with the words: "You'll find it rather amusing if one of the boys decides to show up here."

The dormitories were just like Farley had described them, medieval tapestries which by closer observing were acting like magical portraits and therefor did not simply depict the adventures of those famous Slytherins but showed them in a way which greatly resembled Muggle movies. Well, at least there is something I can occupy myself with if I can't sleep and for whatever reason not able or willing to read a book, Hermione mused. To her surprise the trunks were already brought up. She quickly went to the bed where her trunk had been placed and after changing into her pajamas she was ready to simply drop on her very elegant looking bed, when an annoyingly high voice decided to make its appearance.

"So it is true that Muggles only wear rags. I mean, look at those awful pieces of clothing you wear. I didn't know it was possible to make you look even more uglier, seems I was wrong," the girl, Hermione remembered that her name was Pansy Parkinson, shrieked, her eyes gleaming with malice at the prospect of making fun of her.

On the outside her face remained carefully blank, bare of any emotions which might have betrayed what she was really feeling. She did not want to give Parkinson the satisfaction that she had managed to achieve her goal. To hurt Hermione.

Why she was, she had no idea, it was not as though she hadn't had to endure similar behavior towards her before. Perhaps, she had thought it would change, that that new world, that world full of magic and many other wonders would not only offer her new knowledge and abilities she had yet to master, no she had also thought, _hoped_, that with that new restart in a wholly new world, it would also give her the opportunity to actually make real friends.

Now with her being insulted by that girl for no apparent reason, other than the fact that her parents were not wizards, something which in all honesty was something she could not change or be blamed with, a female version of Malfoy's lackeys snickering at her remark and none of the other girls making any efforts to intervene, she could nearly see how that little faint hope somewhere deep inside her was crushed with those words. Even if that world was a world of wonder, it could not let that one miracle happen, the miracle of her having friends. She hadn't felt that disappointed for a long time.

When she could feel her eyes becoming moisty, she quickly tried to blink the tears away which were threating to roll down her cheeks. It was ridiculous how strongly those petty words affected her, it usually took a lot more to make her that upset. But the topic of friendship had always been her sore point and would undoubtedly remain to be hers.

_I will definitely prove them then that Muggleborns are as good as everyone else_. Those words which she had once said to the hat before it had put her into this misery echoed in her mind. With angry determination, she straightened herself up, walked to Parkinson so that she was only inches away from her face which looked surprised at that reaction and made herself bigger, more of a threat.

"It seems that though you wear rather decent clothing," she eyed Parkinson's very expensive-looking night robes with distaste. "You still look as ugly as ever. Unfortunately even the best clothing, make-up and jewelry won't change the fact that you are as attractive as a lovechild of a gorilla and pig!"

How she came up with that insult was beyond her, she couldn't recall ever being called something like that but at that moment she did not care. With sick amusement, she saw Parkinson's face contort with anger and…pain?

The little bulb of guilt which built up inside her was quickly squashed when she saw that Parkinson's hand moved, either to grab her wand and curse Hermione (although they hadn't have any magical lessons before, it was very likely that Parkinson might have been introduced to some nasty spells by her family) or slap her in her face. Both of the alternatives were not very appealing to her.

It seemed that the other girls with whom she shared the dormitory with didn't find the thought of a fight right now very appealing either. Daphne Greengrass, a beautiful girl with curly and long chocolate brown hair, put a hand on Parkinson's shoulder in a calming manner. "You have enough opportunities to pay her back later, just let the matter rest for now."

Reluctantly, Parkinson nodded and turned, followed by Greengrass, to go to bed. She did so, however, not before shooting Hermione a last hateful glare which she returned with a cold look. It seemed that she had just made herself an archenemy for her entire life (or school life, if she was lucky) but frankly she did not care.

As though nothing or no one had interrupted her, she made herself ready for bed. But again before she could bury her head inside the soft pillow, yet another girl approached her.

She had short, blond hair and big and brown eyes which made her look innocent. But Hermione knew that appearances were deceiving. "I am Tracey Davis," the girl said in a quiet voice, extending her hand.

It was mere reflex, a result of her parents' constant reminder of the value of politeness, that she took the hand and shook it. It was politeness too that made her smile, despite the fact that right now that was the last thing she wanted to do and replied in an equally quiet voice: "I am Hermione Granger."

"I know. It isn't every day that a Muggleborn is Sorted into Slytherin." She lowered her voice even further, making Hermione lean to her even closer to comprehend the following words." By the way I am a half-blood and I can assure you that I am not a so-called Pureblood Supremacist. Would be pretty hypocritical of me, wouldn't it?"

Hermione frowned. "You didn't seem to have though anything against other people insulting me because of my origin," she said, not fully managing to keep the accusation from her voice. At that, Davis looked very uncomfortable.

"You see," Davis began, shifting her feet nervously and was now constantly shooting glances back to the three other girls who were now occupied with gossiping about their housemates.

"That Blaise Zabini looks really handsome, doesn't he? He must have inherited his parents' good looks," Parkinson excitedly said.

"How do you know? His mother is really famous for her beauty but that doesn't mean that his father must be," the female version of Malfoy's minions who, Hermione remembered, was called Milicent Bulstrode asked.

"Well, if she is that beautiful, surely she would get herself an equally good-looking man," Parkinson said in a tone which suggested that what she had said was obvious. "But funny thing is that her men, she is currently dating her fourth, have all died, each of them leaving a small fortune for her. Must be a nice way to live, I would certainly enjoy it," she laughed in which Bulstrode quickly joined in.

Disgusted, Hermione directed her attention back to Davis who had been eyeing the girl with wariness and slight distaste too, and continued as she noticed that Hermione was waiting for her to go on.

"The Parkinsons and Malfoys are really influential in the Wizard world, especially the latter and if you mess with them, it will backfire on you. My father is working for the Ministry of Magic, you know," she added as though it would explain everything which it actually did.

It was terrible to discover how much power and influence horrible people like the families of Malfoy's and Parkinson's seemed to have to be able to let an innocent man lose his job just on a whim.

"I understand."

Davis, no, _Tracey_ looked very relieved, her lips forming into a very wide grin. "I'm glad that you understand. Now with this cleared, how about becoming friends? I'd rather eat earwax-tasting Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans than ever being friends with pug-faced Parkinson." The last words were said in a whisper.

Hermione hesitated a bit, barely believing that it was actually happening. "Sure."

As both of them were very tired, the other girls being no exception as they too made themselves ready for bed, after being tired of talking, few words were exchanged. Hermione let herself plump down ungracefully on the bed, in a matter of seconds she could feel her eyes closing, a small smile on her lips as she slowly descended into the realms of dreams.

A last happy thought lingering on her mind.

_I have made a friend._

o.O.o

Unlike Hermione, Ron's and Harry's evening went on with no further incidents. Both of them were so tired that they barely managed to pull on their pajamas before they fell into their beds, the other boys too seemed too tired to let any snide remarks lose.

"Get off, Scabbers!" Ron angrily muttered to the rat which was chewing his sheets and preventing him to sleep. Finally, when the annoying rat left, he closed his eyes, waiting for the sleep to come. It had been a very terrible day and maybe if he opened his eyes again, he'd find himself back in the Burrow again, eagerly preparing himself for his first day at Hogwarts.

At the thought of the Burrow, his home, he felt dread freezing his insides. His brothers' reaction had been bad enough but what would his parents' be? He could see his parents' disappointed faces, the hope of ever making his parents, especially his mum, proud of him seemed to be a million miles away. Because everything notable he did as a Slytherin was something to be ashamed of.

He blamed it on the lack of food in his stomach for having this bizarre nightmare. A nightmare in which his mum told his little sister, Ginny, to stay away from him, saying that he might do nasty things to her. His father looking at him very angry, which was unusual in itself, demanding to know why he had allied himself with Malfoy.

And a green-silver snake watching it all, hissing which disturbingly reminded Ron greatly of laughter und for an unknown reason he could understand what it was saying.

_You wanted it. You wanted it. Look at how great you are!_

It was one of Ron's worse dreams.

Harry blamed it on his full stomach for having that strange dream. Dudley and his gang were laughing at him, saying that he was not a wizard and therefor had to return back home. They laughed even harder at Harry's horrified expression. Dudley and his gang transformed into Malfoy and the other Slytherins who demanded to know why someone as idiotic as him was in Slytherin. The big snake was agreeing with them, laughing a cold and high laughter at the sight of Harry being pushed around by the Slytherins who kept on asking why he was here.

And suddenly there was a burst of green light. Harry woke, sweating and shaking.

_Just a dream, just a dream_, he kept telling himself until he drifted off to sleep again.

He didn't remember the dream at all the next morning.

**A/N:** For those who are wondering if the password has any meaning, the Runespoor is, according to _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_, a three-headed snake, with each of its head having its own personality. It used to be a favorite pet of Dark wizards due to its striking and intimidating appearance.

And don't forget, reviews make an author happy :D


	3. The First Day

**The Silver Trio – The First Day**

**A/N:** 3 updates in one month, wow, I'm unusually fast. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I wish you all a happy new year in advance :D

I am also using that perfect timetable I found which I will use for this year and all the following years (although I might have to change some things), it makes stuff so much easier! If you want to get a look at it, go to blacklupin dot org /smf/ ? topic=92.0 (and remove the spaces).

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter totally belongs to me.

* * *

Harry woke up in the morning due to a loud voice constantly calling his name.

"Harry! Harry! Wake up, I want to go to breakfast, I'm starving!"

Slowly he rose, rubbing the tiredness out of his eyes, he had barely slept for whatever reason, perhaps he wasn't used to sleeping in a comfortable bed or in a bed, at all.

Clumsily, he searched for his glasses which he had put on the little nightstand right next to his bed. After several failed attempts of grabbing his glasses, he eventually found them and put them on. Immediately, the haze he had been seeing everything through disappeared, revealing an impatient Ron, clearly waiting for him to finish. To Harry's surprise, he was already dressed in the school robes.

He quickly got up upon realizing that. "Have I overslept?" Harry asked. He couldn't believe that he was already being late on his first school day.

Noticing his shock, Ron quickly said: "No. Actually, it's pretty early but I couldn't sleep anymore, my stomach is killing me. So I decided to go for breakfast and well, I thought that you would like to join me."

Harry smiled brightly at the thought of eating breakfast with his friend. "Sure." He changed into his robes as fast as he could and was about to put his school stuff into his bag, when Ron stopped him. At that, Harry looked questionably at him, rising one of his eyebrows.

Ron said in a tone which suggested that he could barely restrain the impatience from dripping into his voice: "According to our timetable, we have a free morning and don't have to bother with any lessons until 10.45 when Charms starts." He nodded to Harry's half packed bag. "You can do this later."

"Fine." Harry carelessly threw the bag on his bed, though luckily none of his things fell out. He followed Ron, who was already at the door which led to the common room. Harry shot a last glance at the dormitory, seeing the other boys still sleeping, clearly intending to use the free morning to its fullest, before he followed Ron outside.

As the stone wall slid open to allow them to enter the Dungeons, a question soon aroused in Harry's mind. "How do we get to the Great Hall? I don't remember the way."

Ron frowned. "Me neither."

"Well, then how about we go into the common room again and ask one of the Slytherins who is awake to lead us the way?" Harry suggested.

If possible, Ron's mood became even fouler. "I won't ask a Slytherin for help, even if I have to search for the bloody way the entire day!" he practically spitted.

Not very keen on having an argument that early Harry merely nodded and tried to calm the red-haired boy. "Well, what about waiting for a Slytherin to leave and then follow him?" He sincerely hoped that this time Ron would agree. Unlike Ron, he was not willing to search for the way the entire day.

A silence followed Harry's suggestion in which Ron seemed to contemplate that idea. Then after several long minutes had passed, Ron slowly nodded, deeming doing that as not 'asking for a slimy Slytherin's help'.

So they hid behind a corner not far away from the entrance and waited and waited and…waited. Barely having any sleep the night before, Harry felt his eyes slowly drop, his eyelids felt very heavy as though someone had put heavy bricks on them.

An occasional nudge to the ribs from Ron, followed by a glare, allowed Harry to stay awake though. If it's about food, Ron surely understands no fun, Harry mused as he watched Ron mutter angrily under his breath, cursing those 'lazy Slytherins who needed their goddamned beauty sleep'.

Harry smiled at the image of a Malfoy wearing that facial mask and having cucumber on his eyes like his aunt always did when she woke up, in Harry's opinion it had looked hilarious but he had wisely decided not to voice that out aloud.

A groan made Harry jolt out of his thoughts. "Finally!" Ron exclaimed, looking very relieved and happy. The reason for Ron's sudden uplift of mood was easily to recognize. Some older Slytherins (though they couldn't have been older by more than two years) had seconds ago left the common room and were now heading to the Great Hall.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, they subtly followed their fellow housemates, keeping a safe distance between them and constantly making sure that they were not too far away. Harry really hoped that they would memorize the way soon (although it wasn't likely that was going to happen anytime soon, all of the passages looked exactly the same), going to breakfast like that on an early morning was more than simply exhausting.

As they were going through the passages of the Dungeons, Harry noticed that the Slytherins looked several times at the stone walls whenever the way led into an intersection. It was only briefly but Harry was sure that it was not simply a coincidence. The stone walls were some kind of direction sign and he was determined now to find out how exactly they worked.

Coming to a halt, Harry examined the stone wall closely. There! It was not recognizable at first sight but there was some kind of…pattern engraved in the stone, now the only question was what it meant.

"Err, Harry? I know that that stone wall must be very interesting and fascinating and all but if we don't hurry up, we'll lose them and Merlin knows how long it will take until we bump into another Slytherin!" As though as to emphasize his point, Ron's stomach decided to show its lack of food, growling like a dangerous animal.

"Wait, I have it nearly figured out…" Harry muttered, not really paying attention to Ron's words, his focus was now directed at the pattern on the stone wall.

"What do you mean?" Ron frowned and also gave the stone wall a closer look now.

The pattern consisted of lines which were arranged in parallel, although their appearance slightly differed. One of them, for example, was a curvy one while another one zigzagged. He picked one of those lines and followed with the tip of his forefinger the route of that line until he stood right before an intersection again.

Now Harry was thinking hard, in such a situation the Slytherins had looked at the stone walls, at the pattern or rather at one of the lines. So assuming that each of these lines stood for one destination, the curly one, the line he had picked, must go on somewhere and eventually lead him to the destination the line stood for.

Harry turned right and examined the stone walls, there was no curvy line. On one side of the corner the curvy one had stopped, only to be continued at the other side of the corner as a now wave-like line. Harry's frown deepened.

But he wasn't about to drop his theory yet, he checked the other three passages, a confused Ron following him, and finally the last passage he checked, the one, which from the point of view where the curvy line had stopped, turning left, had the curvy line engraved in its wall, at exactly the same height as the first curvy line.

Harry couldn't help himself but grin widely at his discovery, now getting lost in, at least, the Dungeons posed no problem for him anymore.

Ron, who had been watching Harry closely in order to find out what the hell his friend was doing, was more than a little annoyed that he was now smiling brightly, basking in triumph at whatever discovery he had made.

"Care to tell me what you have been doing in the last few minutes?"

Instead of a reply, Harry simply pointed to the curvy line. It took several seconds before understanding dawned on Ron's face. "Does following this line leads us to the Great Hall?" Ron asked excitedly.

"No, it leads you to the Potions dungeon," a rather deep voice somewhere behind them answered. In a blink of an eye, they spun around, wands in their hands, although none of them knew any useful spells, not to mention any fitting for a battle.

It was a tall and relatively muscular boy who seemed to be several classes above them. He had large teeth, shifty grey eyes and coarse back hair. And for whatever reason, he seemed to look very smug about something. Harry relaxed and lowered his wand upon noticing that it was just another of his fellow housemates while Ron seemed to tense even more, the clutches of his hand tightening even more around his wand and turning white.

"Good reflexes," the boy nodded in approval. "Though in the Dungeons you don't have any reasons to be afraid as there is always a fellow snake somewhere around here to help you out."

Harry nodded, not quite knowing what to do as Ron blurted out, rather suspiciously: "What are you doing her? Were you following us?" The scowl on Ron's face and the demanding tone he had used made Harry nervous. That boy seemed to be that sort of boy who did not need much encouragement to throw some fists or curses.

But to Harry's surprise, the boy simply smirked, still looking very smug. "It is always good to be wary of your surroundings, even if interacting with other Slytherins, well, actually, especially then. But to answer your question, I was on the way to breakfast when I saw the two of you, looking at the stone wall. I was curious if you could figure it out so I just watched. You have to know, it is very rare for any of the first years to figure it out on their first day at school, assuming no one in your family told you, of course." He paused.

"But I guess it isn't like that in your case. You seem to have very sharp eyes, Harry Potter. And just about the ideal shape of a Seeker. You have great potential, maybe I can ask Professor Snape to make an exception for you and allow you to try out next week. Terence Higgs, who was the Seeker last year, will be leaving school after this year so it would be good to find a new Seeker who could replace him."

"Leaving school as in…graduating?" Harry couldn't help but ask curiously.

"No," the boy was scowling now. "He has to leave the country and the Quidditch team, " he nearly growled, making it sound as if leaving the team was a heinous crime, "because of his father's job which needs him to move to another country."

"Oh," was the only thing Harry could say, his head was swirling with so many questions and he had no idea which one to ask first, not unlike that night in which Hagrid had told him that he was a wizard.

Ron, however, bet him to it. "What position do you think I would be good in?" Anything involving that 'Quidditch' game made Ron seem to forget about the hospitality he had towards Slytherins.

The boy regarded Ron for several seconds before he said: "Looking at your stature, I suppose the position of the Keeper would be appropriate for you."

Ron blinked surprised at the boy's words, probably not expecting that kind of answer.

Realizing that he did not know the boy's name, Harry asked: "Err, not wanting to be rude, but who are you anyway?"

"I'm Marcus Flint, Captain and Chaser of the Slytherin Quidditch team and currently in my fifth year here at Hogwarts." He extended his hand which Harry shook.

"Well, I have to go now. I will tell you at dinner if I have managed to persuade Professor Snape to let you try out. The line you have to follow is the zigzagged one. Good bye." He nodded to Harry and Ron and then hurried off, leaving two excited boys behind.

"Harry, do you know what that might mean? You could become the youngest Quidditch player since a century. First years are usually never allowed to play in the team because of that one stupid rule," Ron said, looking more excited than Harry had seen him since they had caught sight of Hogwarts for the first time.

Harry frowned. "I don't know," he said, unsure. "Just because I have spotted that pattern thing and have about the right shape, doesn't mean that I will be any good as a….What did he call it again?"

"Seeker. The Seeker has to search for the Snitch during a game which rewards the team he is on 150 points and it also ends the game then. You should go read _Quidditch through the Ages_. You are really missing something out, not knowing about Quidditch and all. I also think that that Flint bloke was not lying when he told you that you are good. Despite being a Slytherin, it wouldn't make any sense telling you something like that if he didn't mean it."

Harry merely shrugged. First, he must be allowed to try out anyway before he should worry about being a bad player which was already a given since he didn't know the rules or had ever seen a game before. He remembered something which he had heard during the talk they had with Flint.

"Who is that Professor Snape?"

To his surprise, Ron's happy expression, which he wore since the talk about Quidditch, was wiped off entirely of his face at the mention of the name 'Professor Snape'.

"He is the Head of the Slytherin House. It's said that he always prefers the Slytherins and that he enjoys making first years cry," Ron said in a dark tone which would have been appropriate during a funeral.

"Oh." Not knowing what to say as a reply, he simply asked: "Well, let's go to breakfast. He said we have to follow the zigzagged line, right?"

Ron nodded, being reminded by a growl of his stomach again that he was starving. The two boys went to the Great Hall in record time, always looking for the zigzagged line whenever they ran into an intersection.

Before they could dash to their house table though, which was full of delicious food like bacon and eggs, sandwiches and sausages, a tall and thin boy who had the same red hair and freckles like Ron blocked their way.

"Percy, go away, I am starving," Ron growled, annoyed that his brother wanted to talk with him now.

"I believe that the matter I want to discuss with you is an important one. It's about your future," Percy said in a somewhat pompous voice, eying Harry in a subtle way.

"Can't that wait?" Ron asked exasperatedly.

"No," Percy said firmly. "It's about your Sorting."

Sighing deeply, Ron followed Percy who went to a part of the Gryffindor table where no one was sitting. After being given a pleading look by Ron, Harry followed them, Percy simply raised an eyebrow but said nothing regarding Harry's presence.

When they were seated and had finished piling stacks of food on their plate, Percy began his speech.

"To say I wasn't surprised by your Sorting would be-"

"The understatement of the year," Ron interrupted, although one could barely hear him well with his mouth stuffed full of food.

"Yes," Percy said, not even bothering to hide his annoyance at being interrupted by Ron. He gave a little cough to which Ron only rolled his eyes before he continued. "As I was saying I was surprised, I still am. But I just want to tell you that Slytherin, despite having a rather…unfortunate reputation, is still a House which could bring you far. It is after all also known for valuing ambitiousness, among…other things. I also think that-"

A loud bang stopped Percy. The both of them turned to the origin of the sound whose cause was Ron slapping his hand on the table.

"Listen," Ron said darkly. "You don't have to pretend. I know that you are as upset as probably everyone else in my family with my Sorting. I don't want to be a slimy Slytherin, I don't want to be around Death Eaters' children, especially bloody Malfoy, and I don't want Snape as my Head of House but I can't change anything about it. I wanted to be a Gryffindor like everyone else in my family but the stupid Hat wouldn't let me so don't give me that look as though I am already a Dark wizard, on my way to serve You-Know-Who!" At the end of his speech, he was practically shouting, attracting the attention of the people sitting around them.

"I, I never said or even implied that you were a…a Dark Wizard," whispered a very pale Percy, shocked by his little brother's outburst.

Ron simply gave a sneer in response which could have made Malfoy proud. "Yeah, sure." The disbelief was written all over his face. Harry wanted to say anything to make the situation less awkward but Ron had already stood up and was running out of the Great Hall, leaving Harry and his brother behind. Ron hadn't even eaten half of the food on his plate.

"Well, that didn't go well," Harry muttered.

Instead of an answer, Percy only looked at Harry but very soon his gaze wandered to Harry's lightning-shaped scar. Like a reflex, Harry smoothened a bit of his messy hair so that it would cover his scar which made Percy snap out of his awestruck reverie.

"You are Harry Potter, right?" Percy asked, looking flushed at being caught watching his scar.

Harry nodded, already knowing where this would lead to.

"I have heard a lot about you. But who wouldn't? You have freed us all from He-Who-Must-Not-Not-Be-Named after all. But I do admit that I was surprised too that you were Sorted into Slytherin." Percy paused, clearly not wanting to push it too far, for fear of making Harry react the same way Ron did.

Sighing and wondering how many times he would have to do so again, Harry said: "Look. I can't remember anything about the night, not really anyway and I think it's a bit…odd that people think I'm someone really amazing for doing something I can't remember at all. I feel uncomfortable about it and I'm really nothing special, I'm just like everyone else. So I would appreciate it if you would treat me like you would with any normal student. Please," he added, hoping that it didn't come off as rude.

There was a short silence, in which the two students simply watched each other before Percy decided to break the silence.

"It seems that I have made a hasty judgment about you because of your fame and…House. You seem appropriate to be Ron's friend, if you are, and I feel very relieved that he is in good company, something which isn't very easy, if one considers in which House he is."

"Slytherin isn't bad at all! And it would be really nice of you not to upset Ron even more with it. It's not his fault, he didn't want it but I can assure you that just because he is in Slytherin, he won't become evil nor will I!" Harry snapped and just like Ron ran away, the only thing in his mind currently was to leave as much distance as possible between Percy and himself.

Although Percy had denied it, it had been very obvious what his real opinion to the whole matter was. It was like Percy didn't recognize his brother anymore as though he was an entirely different person and not his own brother, just because he was in Slytherin.

Harry didn't know a lot about the wizarding world and he also didn't know a lot about Hogwarts either as this was his first day but what he knew for sure was that the Slytherins were treated unfairly. Yes, some of them were gits but Harry was sure that the other Houses didn't consist of saints either. How they were immediately judged and regarded without even knowing one bit about their actual personality, it reminded him painfully of his days back with the Dursleys.

How the neighbors avoided him because of the Dursleys saying that he was dangerous, how all his classmates didn't want to associate with him because of what Dudley told them about him (and perhaps the one or another threat was a reason too). It was terrible to be judged because of what other people were saying and not how one actually was like.

And if there was a way to change that, to make people realize that Slytherin wasn't all bad, he'd definitely find it.

o.O.o

The rest of the day was fairly normal, if you could call a day at Hogwarts normal anyway. They only had Charms and Transfiguration this day, both with the Ravenclaws and at least they did not seem to mind the Slytherins as much as the others which showed that there was still hope.

Harry had found Ron in the still empty classroom in which Charms would take place, looking very frustrated. But he immediately cheered up as Harry asked him to explain the Quidditch rules. Harry made a mental note to himself to always say something about Quidditch whenever Ron was in a bad mood.

And together they attended the Charms lesson which with the tiny Professor Flitwick as the teacher turned out to be a very entertaining one. Even Ron couldn't help but snicker along with his fellow house mates, earning some glares from the Ravenclaws, as the tiny teacher gave an excited squeak when he called out Harry's name and promptly fell from the pile of books he was standing on.

Professor McGonagall, the Head of the Gryffindor House and Transfiguration teacher, was a very strict teacher. In their first lesson she had given the students a speech about the dangers of that subject and that they were not to be trifled with. Just like her, Harry added mentally.

They were given matches which they were supposed to turn into needles. By the end of the lesson, only two or three Ravenclaws and to Harry's surprise Draco Malfoy managed, who immediately used this as an opportunity to show off and brag with his talent as according to him, it was only natural that he would manage since his magical power came from a long line of strong wizards.

Unfortunately, he made fun about Ron too, saying that coming from such a poor family full of blood traitors, it was no wonder that he was about as magical as a Squib (although Harry had no idea what that meant, it must be something rather insulting). Having not a very good day, that had been the final straw for Ron who punched Malfoy right into his face, the sound of a crack making it evident that he had just broken his nose. Professor McGonagall, who had only witnessed the latter part of their little argument, gave Ron one week detention and took 20 points from Slytherin and ordered Crabbe to take Malfoy to the hospital wing.

Though Ron did not care that Slytherin had lost points because of him, the prospect of spending the evenings with Filch, the caretaker and according to the twins the evil incarnated, for a whole week was not something he was looking forward to.

Merlin, hopefully his mum wouldn't hear of it (although with Percy being in the same school, the chance of it not happening was very slim) and send him a Howler! Detention in the first week, the first day! She would think that he was planning to become like Fred and George. No, he thought bitterly, she would think I would become one of the next Death Eaters.

Well, at least Malfoy wouldn't be able to brag about his good looks anymore with his broken nose and that sort of made up for it.

o.O.o

Harry had been eating dinner in the Great Hall with Ron on his right side and Hermione on the other, just like during the evening in which the Sorting took place, although Hermione was currently talking with a girl next to her, whose name was Tracey Davis, if Harry recalled right. Harry smiled slightly at the sight, Hermione was alright, despite being sometimes a bit bossy and acting like a know-it-all and she definitely deserved to have friends who did not judge her because of her origin like Malfoy.

Harry had helped himself to a bit of soup when Flint approached him. He had been confused first, had he done something wrong(?), before he remembered that Flint wanted to talk about the Quidditch try outs with him at dinner.

"It didn't work," Flint growled, slumping on the bench right next to him, pushing Ron to the side who gave a protesting cry. Ignoring him, he put a bit of meat on his plate and began to make a massacre out of it with the help of the eating utensils. One didn't need to be a genius to know that he was very upset by this.

"Why?" Harry asked, although this wasn't very surprising, he felt the need to ask.

Flint gave him a dark look, as though it had been all his fault before he replied: "I have no idea. As soon as I have mentioned that it might be a good idea to let you try out, he became very furious, saying that he did not want to give the arrogant brat even more special treatment and that his head might explode from becoming too big-headed if he were indeed to be given his permission, although he also added that he wouldn't mind that too much. I'm amazed, Potter, not many manage to get on his bad side that early, especially considering that you are a Slytherin. What did you do to make him act like that?"

Harry was appalled to say the least at his Head of House's words. "I didn't do anything, well, not anything to him. Hell, I haven't even seen him yet."

Flint raised one of his eyebrows. "So he dislikes you for no apparent reason?"

"Seems so."

"I happen to know the reason," Nott surprisingly said. As far as Harry knew, Nott wasn't a git like Malfoy or Zabini who had insulted not only him but also Ron and Hermione on several occasions, although he did so in a far more subtle way than Malfoy. Though Nott didn't stand up for them either (Harry wasn't quite sure if Nott supported pureblood supremacy too, given that he had asked Hermione about her family), in fact he usually kept to himself, not taking anyone's side.

So it was quite a surprise that he was willingly making an effort to participate in their talk.

"And why does he dislike me?"

"He probably hates you," Nott corrected helpfully. "He hated your father with passion too, according to what I have heard from some people. It is also said that you look very much alike to him so it is very likely that he has passed on his hatred for your father to you."

"This is his reason that he hates me? Because he hated my father who is already dead for a long time?" Harry asked disbelievingly.

"He is a bitter man with many grudges, you should keep that in mind, Harry Potter, if you do not wish to fall into his disgrace even more," Nott said and continued to eat, making it quite clear that he did not want to elaborate further.

o.O.o

Later, when he was in his bed, Harry pondered on Nott's words. What had happened between Snape and his father to make the man hate even him because he was his son, after years had passed since his father's death?

With so many things going on on his mind, he decided that he wouldn't be able to get sleep for quite a while and quietly went to the common room, not being aware of the fact that two other boys, he shared the dormitory with, were still awake too.

As he entered the common room, he found it empty which was not a big surprise, looking at the time and made himself comfortable in one of the sofas near the fireplace, the fire was still crackling despite it not needing to be. It was nearly impossible for a first year to get one of the seats near the fireplace as they were most of the time occupied by older students so Harry fully embraced the opportunity, being content with only watching the fire.

Suddenly, he remembered how he had the urge to talk to the snake crest when he had first caught sight of it. Wondering if it had been only his imagination, he curiously looked at the stoned snake and again he felt that urge.

He thought for some seconds if he had just gone crazy or if he should just ignore it but then decided that trying out wouldn't do any harm.

"Err, hello." Naturally, there was no answer and Harry felt very ridiculous for even thinking that it could have worked when a disembodied voice suddenly said: _Knowledge is power. Do you seek knowledge, serpent tongue?_

Harry practically fell out of the sofa at hearing the voice.

The emerald which was the stoned snake's eye was shining unnaturally and the fire had increased in size, looking somewhat threatening now.

Harry had yet to figure what he should do when another voice, this time a familiar one said: "You can talk Parseltongue?"

**A/N:** Not the best cliffhanger, I know but I still hope that you have enjoyed this chapter and that the thing with the pattern on the walls did not seem too ridiculous to you. I mean, I have always imagined the Dungeons to look always the same and this kind of makes it difficult to know where to go, unless you have memorized which direction you have to take whenever you ran into an intersection. Anyway, please leave a review if you have some time, it would mean a lot to me!


	4. Parseltongue

**The Silver Trio – Parseltongue**

**A/N:** Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed or put this story on their favorite or/and alert list, it makes me really happy and I can't thank you enough for your support :D

I also made a cover for the story, it took me one hour to edit it and just now I noticed how small cover images on fanfiction are, you can barely see the Slytherin colors…

Anyway, I have noticed while googling for pictures which already show the Golden Trio wearing Slytherins robes (though I found none), that there is already a fanfiction with the exactly same title and it also features the Golden trio being in Slytherin (it's the only other story I found which has the same idea). It's pretty good, the writing style is for example far better than mine, although it is fairly dark and rated M for a reason.

The first chapter already shows that Harry is being abused by his relatives (much more than in canon), Hermione cutting herself because of her parents' terrible arguments and Ron being raped. Naturally, their personalities aren't the same as in canon. But if you don't mind such things, I'd definitely suggest to give the story a shot, it's written by Seta Kaede but she eventually stopped after 12 chapter and it was taken by AlexisStevCotius who revised the already existent chapters and then wrote a bit more (don't let you be misled by the 10 chapters, she put some chapters together), although right now it is very unlikely that the story will continue since the last update was in 2006.

If you happen to know more stories in which the Trio is in Slytherin, I'd love to hear about them :D

_I apologize for any mistakes, I wanted to get the chapter published as fast as possible, so I didn't had enough time to proofread it but I will once I have enough time to get on my computer._

**Disclaimer:** Everything what you recognize from the books belongs to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

Harry whipped his head around, his eyes widened in surprise, meeting the blue eyes of Ron who looked as though he had just seen the Bloody Baron hiding in his bed.

"Parseltongue?" Harry quietly asked, feeling alarmed by Ron's expression. It was not only shock but also…fear and that realization made Harry's insides knot uncomfortably.

That one word seemed to make Ron snap out of his daze, his face immediately regaining its color again, though now it was as red as Ron's hair. "Parseltongue? You don't know what this is?" Ron asked in an unnervingly quiet tone. "YOU JUST TALKED LIKE A SNAKE! I HEARD YOU HISS STUFF TO THAT CREST AND IT ANSWERED BACK!" the whisper had soon enough turned into shouting.

Highly disturbed by his friend's reaction, he didn't know what to say, in his shock his mind wasn't able to form any words. It also hurt to see his friend like that, angry and fearful and only because he had…talked to that stoned snake.

A memory flickered before his inner eye, the one in which he had talked with the snake in the zoo, which told him that it had been never in Brazil. Harry gulped. He hadn't thought it was necessary to bring it up, thinking that this was not anything odd in the wizarding world, apparently it was.

After he got a grip on himself again, he managed to choke out the words: "Is that something bad?"

For a while, there was only silence in which Ron looked at Harry, as though this was the first time he had actually looked at him clearly, as though they were strangers. It was exactly the same look Percy had given his little brother. Then finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Ron said, visibly shaken by the fact that his friend and Boy-Who-Lived was a Parselmouth: "If it's bad? Merlin, it's the mark of a Dark wizard, every one who can talk to snakes is evil!" His voice dropped again to a whisper so that Harry had to strain to hear the words. "You-Know-Who was one."

Silence. Harry felt sick, very sick. He could speak Parseltongue, just like Voldemort. Was he destined to become like him, an evil Dark wizard who enjoyed killing humans, who had no problem killing babies and their parents? Harry slowly shook his head, trying to get rid of these thoughts. No.

"No," he repeated aloud, in the silence it sounded like he was shouting. "I won't become like him! I'd rather die than ever becoming like him! He killed my parents, because of him I had to spend my entire life with the Dursleys and he did so many worse things to people! Do you really think I am like him, I don't mind talking to snakes but if…if it means that I will become Dark, I will stop and never even look at a snake." At the beginning, he was angry, angry at Ron who really thought that he was able to do things like that, angry at himself for having this ability in the first place but then it turned into resignation, sadness and self-loathing. Maybe, the nasty voice in his mind whispered, maybe the Dursleys were right. Maybe, you really are a freak. Maybe, they noticed your abnormality, that evilness inside you. And if that's the case, don't you deserve it? Evil must be punished, after all.

He could distantly hear a voice calling his name. But it did not matter. The person calling him, probably only wanted to mock him, bully him, he was a freak, after all, an evil one on top of that. It was too much. At the beginning, he had always wondered why his aunt and uncle did not treat him the same way they did with Dudley. What had he done wrong? After a while, he gave up the hope that he could ever please them and make them love him or at least having no hatred towards him. Although, having to acknowledge that was one of the hardest and most painful things for Harry, there had been at least that little faint hope that maybe the Dursleys were the wrong ones, the bad people.

As far as Harry could tell, there were children who behaved far worse than him, Dudley being a prime example, but their parents loved them anyway. And after receiving the letter from Hogwarts and entering the wizarding world for the first time, he realized that magic, the reason why the Dursleys apparently hated him, was wonderful, the most beautiful thing in the world. Soon he came to the conclusion that the Dursleys' hatred and fear of magic was unreasonable, that the way they treated Harry was not good and that there were no excuses for their behavior.

This is why not only the prospect alone of leaving the Dursleys for nearly a whole year and the opportunity to learn real magic made the day, when Hagrid told him he was a wizard, his happiest day. Being assured that it was not his fault, that here was nothing wrong with him or anything which justified the Dursleys' treatment, was as good as being able to perform magic.

Now to be confronted with it again, at the most unexpected moment, being proven wrong, realizing that there was something wrong with him, that he was even Dark and evil, it was too much. Too much to bear.

Wrong, Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

He had been always wrong, of course there had been a reason why the Dursleys hated them, he probably had deserved every-

SLAP!

Harry noticed the pain burning on his cheek faster than he noticed the sound itself, it merely jolted him out of his thoughts. Thoughts? Or maybe it had been a dream and Uncle Vernon had hit him because he had overslept and had not made breakfast. But everything had seemed so realistic, so true…

"Goddammit, Harry! What the bloody hell is wrong with you?!" a familiar voice shouted. Harry had to blink several times so that he could take in the sight before him, Ron, a wizard and a Hogwarts student, standing before him, anger, confusion, worry and so many other emotions were so evident to see on his face.

Harry nearly let out a laugh of relief, it was not a dream, of course not, as if he could ever come up with something as brilliant as Hogwarts! But he quickly sobered again. He couldn't believe how he had even come to the conclusion that it was a dream. Wasn't the realization of his evil and obviously magical ability to talk to snakes not the reason in the first place why his emotions were in such a mess? Was being in a denial always like that? Coming to conclusions that hardly made any sense?

"Harry! Snap out of it!" Ron said exasperatedly, successfully attracting Harry's attention this time. He scratched the back of his head and looked anywhere except at Harry when he noticed Harry was looking at him. If Harry did not know better, he'd say Ron felt very awkward at the moment.

"Look, I-" but he cut himself off, seemingly struggling to find the right words. It took a while for Ron to find his composure again. "I did not mean to upset you, I am… I am sorry that I still did." The apology seemed sincere, although it made the impression as though Ron barely or even at all said these words often and really meant them, maybe it was even the first time Ron had offered an apology on his own.

"I know or as good as I can know, after knowing you for about a day," Ron gave Harry a timid smile which Harry hesitantly returned back, not knowing where this situation would exactly lead into, "that you are not evil or bad, even if you can talk to snakes and are in Slytherin. Well, I am in Slytherin too and I also think that I'm not evil." He let out a heavy sigh. "I suppose I have to accept the fact that I'm a sli-, a Slytherin," he hastily corrected himself, which for whatever reason made Harry smile.

"Soo, how about forgetting this whole stuff and just head to our beds again?" Ron suggested.

Harry was just about to agree when yet another familiar voice interrupted him, though this one was far less welcomed than the previous one.

"How tear-jerking, Weasley," Draco Malfoy drawled. "Didn't know that you were poor and a sappy wimp. How deep can you still fall? Seems that if one is a Weasley, one can never fall too deep."

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry asked quickly, before Ron lost his temper entirely. "And how much did you hear?"

The mischievous smirk on Malfoy's lips forebode nothing good. "Who would have thought that Saint Potter is a Parselmouth?" Malfoy laughed at Harry's shocked and pale expression. But he quickly ceased it, a hungry glint was now in Malfoy's eyes.

"What did it say?"

"It said… something like knowledge is power and asks me if I seek knowledge," Harry replied, only absently wondering why he even told that Malfoy of all people, he too wondered now what the stoned snake had meant, his shock, anger and sadness momentarily replaced by curiosity.

"Well, why do you not answer back? And see what happens," Malfoy suggested impatiently, his cold eyes looked unusual alive and his face was flushed in excitement.

"No, Harry," Ron warned. "It might be a trap. Don't trust anything Malfoy tells you."

Malfoy rolled his eyes at Ron's words. "Look," he said very slowly, as though he was explaining a long word to a little child, "I cannot be the person to set up this, according to you, trap, it's obvious that Salazar Slytherin was the one who did that. And Weasel, use that little brain of yours. Why would Salazar put some sort of trap in the middle of the Slytherin common room, especially if only a Parselmouth can activate that? Isn't it far more likely that the snake truly means what it says? That it will help the Slytherin Parselmouth in question, in this case Potter, with his search of knowledge? A Slytherin and on top of that a Parselmouth would be the ideal sort of student in Salazar's eyes," Harry could make out a bitter edge in Malfoy's words. "He would try to help him out, instead, as you have suggested it, put him into some kind of dangerous trap."

Ron said nothing, not being able to find anything against Malfoy's reasoning.

"I will just try it out, alright?" Harry said, on the one hand he did want to know what was going to happen, he was a curious person by nature, but on the other hand he feared his Dark ability and also that he might lose the tentative friendship he had with Ron.

Again, Ron said nothing, which Harry took as a 'yes', while Malfoy waited impatiently to have him go on.

Taking a deep breath and before he could change his mind again, he quickly hissed at the snake engraved in the crest :Yes:

Now that it was pointed out to him, he didn't only hear the English word, it was also accompanied by a hiss. As soon as the word was out, the snake's emerald eye was positively gleaming and the fire enlarged even more, for one moment Harry feared that he might set the common room on fire, when the fire turned from the normal red-yellow-orange color to an emerald one.

"It looks exactly like as if someone has thrown Floo powder into it," Ron said awestruck.

"Floo powder?" Harry asked.

"You really are clueless, aren't you, Potter?" Malfoy sneered.

"I am sorry that I didn't know until a month ago that I was a wizard," Harry snapped, his patience regarding Malfoy's taunts had been long worn out.

"If you throw Floo powder into a fireplace, the flames will turn harmless and green just like that fire," Ron quickly explained, for once playing the peace maker. "If you walk into the flames, you have to say the name of the place you want to, although my mum says it's very important that you say it loudly and clearly."

Harry raised one of his eyebrows, examining the flames curiously.

"So if I were to step in, it would transport me to another place?"

"Have you not listened to Weasley, Potter? You also have to state the name of your desired destination," Malfoy said.

"That doesn't need to be like that in this case," Ron argued, apparently his desire to prove Malfoy wrong outweighed his want to distance himself as far as possible to dark topics like Parseltongue. "I mean, how the hell is Harry supposed to know where it will lead him? He can't just say 'the place where the knowledge lays' or some crap like that. Maybe, you only have to step in to be transported to somewhere else."

"That makes sense," Malfoy admitted, though it had been very reluctantly. However, sure enough Malfoy's eyes were gleaming with barely concealed malice and before either of them could even say as much as a 'what?!' Malfoy had already shoved Ron roughly into the fire.

The fire increased in size once more, for a moment it looked as though the flames were engulfing Ron, when he suddenly started to spin and then he was…gone, the fire returning to its former size.

After recovering from his shock, Harry whirled around and grabbed Malfoy by his collar, angrily demanding: "Why the hell have you done that?!"

"I was just testing out if the theory was right," Malfoy replied smoothly, somehow managing to look like the innocence in person. It was nothing short of amazing that Malfoy's smug face didn't have an encounter with Harry's fist.

"You could have gotten Ron killed!" Harry said, though it was bordering on shouting.

"Be quiet! Do you want to wake up the entire House?" Malfoy hissed, seeing that Harry had already opened his mouth to retort, he quickly added: "I knew that nothing bad would happen to Weasley and I thought the little shock would do him good." He ended the explanation with a little smirk.

"You do realize that there was the possibility that you were not right. What would you have done if Ron would have burned to ashes?"

For a split moment Malfoy looked uncomfortable but it quickly vanished again so Harry wasn't quite sure if it had been his imagination or not. "I knew that nothing like that would happen, so stop bothering me about it. Weasley's fine."

"Fine," Harry said, knowing that he hadn't the will nor patience to deal with Malfoy's bitchiness. Nervously, he ran a hand through his messy hair, making it even more of a mess. "Damn. I have to go after him, make sure that nothing has happened to him and bring him back. And you," Harry scowled, his eyes flashing dangerously and his wand pointed threateningly at Malfoy's throat, "will come with me, Malfoy."

Malfoy narrowed his eyes in suspicious, clearly unfazed by the hidden warning in Harry's voice. "Why should I?" he snarled. "It's your problem, not mine. I couldn't care less about the Weasel."

"It became your problem when you put Ron in this situation in the first place. And don't think I won't do it, if you mess around," Harry added, his wand now only inches away from Malfoy's throat.

Softly, Malfoy pushed the wand with his hand away from his throat, while with the other hand he took out his own wand, stabbing Harry lightly into his stomach with it, a smirk was curled up on his lips. "Potter, you are in no position to threaten me. What can you do? Make some sparks? I happen to know some actual spells and believe me they aren't pretty."

Harry gulped, only noticing now that Malfoy was right, he was in Hogwarts for only one day, barely having learned anything yet, while Malfoy was already taught who knows how many useful spells by his family. What did Ron say? His father was one of You-Know-Who's followers, Harry recalled, which meant that indeed the spells in Malfoy's repertoire were something Harry did not want to face.

If force was out of an option then only persuading was left. He couldn't just leave Malfoy alone while he searched for Ron, he wouldn't put it past him to somehow deactivate that fire magic and make them be trapped there forever or at least call for a Perfect or worse the Head of house himself, Professor Snape, and make sure they were in for a lot of trouble. Harry somehow doubted that he would receive a fair punishment by Snape, considering his unreasonable hatred towards him.

"I see," Harry sighed. "I guess that I should better not challenge you, you would with no doubt win."

"Yes, it's good that you have at least a little common sense," Malfoy agreed, although he couldn't hide his surprise at Harry's sudden change of mood.

"Do you know why I wanted you to come with me? Because I don't know if I can handle the things which might get in the way when I am being transported to who knows where. As you have already pointed out I couldn't cast a good spell to save my life, literally. So knowing that you are around would definitely make things a lot easier and less dangerous." Life with the Dursleys would have been intolerable (well, even more than it already was), if he wouldn't know how to make a deal sound good. He had gotten out of quite a lot of beating, Dudley was so easily to be fooled and also Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were willing to make his life a little less harder than usual, if he was able to offer them something for exchange (although, that was unfortunately rarely the case).

However, there was a problem. He didn't know Malfoy as good as he did the Dursleys. But from what he had gathered, Malfoy was one to easily give in to flattering and he might offer his help only to show off and satisfy his oversized ego. Though, Malfoy wasn't stupid either, Harry was unsure whether he had complimented him too much and made Malfoy suspicious of him and let him saw right through Harry's plot.

Luckily, Malfoy smirked superiorly in response to Harry's words and pompously said: "Well, if you ask me so nicely, I think I will offer you my help," giving Harry a smile which a king would give his lowest but loyal subordinate. Merlin, that had been perhaps too easy.

Mental note to himself: Flattering went a long way, especially if a blond-haired, arrogant bigot was involved.

"Well," Harry said, trying his best not too sound overly cheerful, "than we should better go now. I would feel safer if you were the one to go in first, of course, I know that you already said it's not dangerous but just to be sure…" he trailed off, knowing that he got his message across.

"Fine, I will. Who would have thought that Harry Potter is such a coward?" Malfoy sneered, although there was not as much malice as usual, apparently Harry complimenting him made Malfoy act a little less mean.

With everything being cleared Malfoy stepped into the fireplace without even a sign of fear but Harry suspected that for him it wasn't an unusual experience if he had already used Floo Powder before. Again, the green fire erupted and a blink of an eye later Malfoy was gone.

Now, only he had to do that. Harry gulped but nevertheless stepped in. It was a surreal experience, being surrounded by flames but still feel rather chilly. However, he didn't wonder for long as he suddenly started to spin, faster and faster.

What greeted him was the cold stone floor, his arrival being fairly unpleasant with him being practically thrown out of the fireplace. If traveling with Floo Powder was always like that, then he could live without it just fine. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to travel a lot with it in the future, he thought as he rubbed his nose which now had a little bruise because of its encounter with the hard floor.

The next thing he noticed after his arrival was the sound of gleeful cackle. It didn't took long for Harry to find the origin of the voice, not far away, he saw Malfoy, rudely pointing his finger in Harry's direction and with the other hand clutching his stomach as if he was laughing so hard that his stomach had started to ache.

Harry scowled. "What the hell is so funny?"

It took Malfoy quite some time before he finally regained his composure again, but there was still a huge grin plastered on his face as he answered: "How you were thrown out and then your face hit the floor so hard and how that looked and your expression-" And at that point he was unable to continue as he was again in a fit of laughter.

It was annoying to have someone outwardly laugh at your face but he was used to it because of Dursley and his gang and simply tuned the laughter off and instead regarded his surroundings.

It seemed he was in some sort of…library, it did not look exactly like one but the many shelves full of books gave him the impression that it must be one. But aside of that, the rest of the room reminded him more of the Dungeons, just as cold and dark and only lightened by the torches attached to the stone walls, with banners, displaying the Slytherin-typical green and the silver serpent, hanging on them.

In the middle were ancient but comfy-looking armchairs, placed around a desk, the likes one usually saw in films in which kings dined with their families, although it wasn't as huge or large. There were also several shelves which were filled with very curious things, for example vials which seemed to be filled with some strange kind of liquor or also completely unknown items which sort of reminded him of instruments and parts of animals or other creatures, usually bones or the skins and furs, although Harry also spotted eyeballs in one glass.

On the walls were not only the Slytherin banners but also maps which showed cities, countries, they did resemble maps he saw back at his old school in geography lessons, although the shape differed and the names of some he'd never heard of before, for example Hogsmeade, a village which apparently wasn't far away from Hogwarts, if it still existed.

On several spots statures of serpents or of some wizard or witch stood, giving him the impression as though they were watching him with their lifeless stone eyes.

If one got used the cold and dark atmosphere, the same as in the Dungeons, it would be a nice place to study, discover some of those things or just in general wanted to spend time in.

As Harry examined the room, he was also trying to spot a certain redhead but his search was proven futile, not even a glimpse of Ron could be seen. With a sigh, he turned to Malfoy who had finally stopped his laughter for good. "Did you see Ron?"

"No, I haven't seen him yet, I suggest we split up and search for him properly, this room might be bigger than one might think."

Harry blinked several times in surprise, barely believing that Malfoy actually made a real effort to try to find Ron. Maybe, he did feel regret for pushing Ron just like that in the fireplace. After recovering from the little shock, Harry nodded in response and Malfoy quickly scurried off, disappearing out of sight when he went to the many book shelves, not appearing to search at all.

Or maybe Malfoy just took this as an opportunity to read some interesting stuff to get ahead in class, Harry thought grimly, feeling ridiculous that he had thought that Malfoy would actually regret anything he had done. Well, at least he wouldn't actively try to get in his way while he searched for Ron.

He took the direction opposite to the one Malfoy took, looking everywhere, his neck started to ache from constantly turning his head to make sure he didn't miss anything. Malfoy was right, the more he went on, the longer the hallway seemed to be, things he were sure weren't there before seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

Not even bothering to refrain the sigh from threatening to escape from his mouth, he let himself plump into one of those armchairs, they really were as comfy as they looked. Tiredly, Harry rubbed his eyes, it was still in the middle of night and after all that excitement he just felt worn out. However, he couldn't allow himself to rest now, he first had to make sure that Ron was alright. Stupid Malfoy for always acting like a git, stupid Ron who could not stay where he was and instead went off to who knows where. His mood had definitely reached its lowest point, and the fact that he still did not quite knew how to handle that piece of information that he was a Parselmouth did not help to improve his mood either.

Just as he was about to kick something in his frustration, he heard a soft moan coming from behind a rather big shelf, which was filled with several parts of what seemed to be bird-like creatures. Cautiously, he took his wand out and pointed it to the direction from where the sound came, Merlin knows what sort of things might be lurking in this place. When nothing seemed to jump at him, he slowly approached the shelf, always making sure to notice any sudden movements.

Raising his wand even higher, he quickly turned to the back of the shelf, ready to face whatever thing it was, to his great relief and shock, it was Ron whose face was contorted in great pain, clutching his left leg, a lot of blood was dripping from a huge hole in his leg.

Immediately he rushed to his side, carefully examining the wound. He knew quite a lot about wounds from experience. "What happened?" he asked worriedly. That wound didn't look good, he wasn't sure if he could treat something like that, especially without a medical kit or anything similar to it, a bandage or even some plasters would do, anything that could make the bleeding stop.

"I don't know," he said hoarsely. "I didn't know what to do and figured that you would come after me and then I saw that interesting stuff and decided to investigate it, I touched some of it and then suddenly, there was a hole in my leg."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," he confirmed, it seemed he wanted to say more but he stopped as he winced out in pain. Harry had never treated something as serious as that injury, before it had been only scratches and bruises and things like that, that was a wholly different matter, however.

Just as he was about to rip a part of his robes so that he had at least something to bandage the wound and stop the bleeding as good as possible, Malfoy turned up, wearing an expression of true worry and shock.

"What happened?" Malfoy unintentionally repeated Harry's words from before.

"He got attacked by some weird stuff," Harry replied as Ron seemed to be unable to respond, although he was still able to throw Malfoy some of his dirtiest looks.

"We should heave him, with the two of us it shouldn't be too difficult."

It was a sign of how terrible Ron looked, that Malfoy didn't argue at all and silently complied, his face even paler than usual. They went as fast as possible, careful not to cause Ron even more pain and stopped just before the fireplace.

"Should we all just go in?"

"Let's just do it, we don't have much time to worry about these things. "

Reluctantly, Malfoy stepped with Harry inside the fireplace, carrying Ron. They waited for something to happen while they were being surrounded by the green flames, nothing happened.

"Maybe, you have to say something, Potter."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows, not really wanting to use that Parseltongue ability which got them into that whole mess in the first place. But it wasn't like had another choice.

"Bring us back and…seal the entrance to that room again," he added, he didn't want the Slytherins to wonder why the fire in the fireplace had suddenly turned green.

"You're still speaking English. I heard that it's easier to speak it when faced with a snake or envisioning one."

He wasn't quite sure if he should asked where Malfoy got a hold of that particular piece of information so he just tried it out, closing his eyes briefly, in his mind a picture of the snake he met in the zoo. :Bring us back and seal the entrance to that room.:

Again, he could hear his words being accompanied by a hiss, most likely he had only started to hear it when he became aware that he was talking in a different language.

This time it worked, as soon as the words were out of his mouth, they started to spin faster and faster.

If Malfoy hadn't caught him by his arm, Harry would probably have been thrown into one of the armchairs which could have resulted in a bit more than just bruises. Harry felt inclined to thank him when Malfoy decided to successfully stop him from doing so. "I would prefer not to take care of two clumsy fools."

"Don't forget whose fault it was," Harry scowled. Malfoy merely rolled his eyes in response.

"And what are we supposed to do now?" Harry asked, not being able to come up with anything which could save Ron and prevented them from getting into a lot of trouble, naturally, if consulting a teacher was the only option left, he'd do so, although he doubted Malfoy would tag along.

"We go to the Hospital Wing," Malfoy said, as though this was the most logical action to take.

"But wouldn't they ask questions?"

"Madame Pomfrey doesn't ask too many questions, she will most likely be far too worried about Weasley's wellbeing and then we can just quietly and quickly go to our beds again."

"Alright, then let's go quickly to the Hospital wing." A far too familiar sneer was on Malfoy's face again and Harry had the suspicion that he had said something very dumb.

"What about the caretaker Squib and his cat? And that annoying ghost Peeves? It would be a miracle if we didn't run into one of them while we go to the wing."

Sometimes, people recalled things which they had simply forgotten because at that time it didn't seem important, but now proved to be of very great importance, that was one of the cases too.

"Did you remember the Prefect's speech?" Harry excitedly asked. It was an insane idea which might just work.

Malfoy gave him a disbelieving look. "Why should I? Most of the things I have known before, anyway, and the things I have not are not of any importance."

Just ignoring the arrogance of the other boy, Harry went on as if Malfoy had said nothing which made Malfoy narrowed his eyes, apparently he didn't like it to be ignored. "She said that if we ask nicely, the Bloody Baron would scare some people. What if we convince him to make Peeves cause some sort of chaos somewhere else so Filch would be occupied and we can safely go to the Hospital Wing?" He had heard during the process of his first day how the other first years had constantly moaned how difficult it was to get to different rooms with Peeves always harassing them and how lucky the Slytherins were to have the Baron as their House ghost. As the Bloody Baron was the only one Peeves feared, he wouldn't annoy the Slytherins too much and what he had heard of Ron, Filch's, the caretaker, main goal in life was to ban the poltergeist from the castle forever, followed closely by making the students' life as horrible as possible.

Absently, Harry wondered if having staff like that with such an attitude, apparently Snape was included on the 'I hate children' list too, was an appropriate learning environment, not like it was in Harry's place to question that anyway.

All in all, his plan might just work, however, Malfoy didn't seem to share his opinion, if the incredulous looks he was getting were any indication at all.

But after several moments in which Malfoy seemed to contemplate Harry's idea , he finally declared: "It's so insane and stupid, it might just work." Well, apparently they had one thing in common: the same kind of logic.

"So where are we going to find him?" That was the only thing which wasn't quite clear in his plan to make it run smoothly.

"Let's go outside. He often tends to be in the Dungeons." Harry nodded and together they heaved Ron, who at that point had already lost consciousness, out of the common room, the three of them now standing in the corridor.

After all the bad things which had happened to Harry, Lady Luck finally took pity on him. They didn't had to walk around and searched or the ghost because the ghost in question passed through the wall at the front of them.

Harry couldn't help but shiver in fear as the wide staring black eyes narrowed at the sight of the three Slytherins, one of them being badly hurt and unconscious.

"What is the meaning of that?" the Bloody Baron demanded to know.

Harry gulped, maybe his plan was a really bad one, after all. Hoping that Malfoy had an idea how to approach the ghost, he glanced sidewards to the blond-haired Slytherin who looked at anything but in Harry's or the Bloody Baron's direction. Great.

"I, we, well, Ron got attacked and now, we have to go to the Hospital Wing. But there are Filch and Peeved, so canyouhelpus," he asked without even taking once a breath. If it weren't beyond a Malfoy's dignity, Malfoy would have probably banged his head against a wall now.

The Bloody Baron, luckily, looked rather confused than angry. "Elaborate. How come that one of your fellow snakes is badly hurt?"

Should Harry tell him or not? He didn't want even more people to know that he was a Parselmouth or hear about his discovery but then again he wasn't a great liar and if the Bloody Baron noticed that he wasn't telling the truth, well, Harry didn't particularly wanted to know about the consequences.

So the truth it would be.

"I had the urge to talk to the stone crest, the one hanging over the fireplace in the common room. So I did. It answered back, asking me if I seek knowledge. That's when Ron and Malfoy appeared. After a little argument I talked to the snake again and said 'yes'. The fire became really big and green. Ron said it looked as though someone has thrown Floo Powder into the fire. Malfoy," he glared at Malfoy, who again pretended to look innocent, "decided to 'test' if Ron was right and shoved him into the fire, he disappeared. Malfoy and I went after him. We were in that huge room with lots of books, maps and other weird stuff. We found Ron badly hurt, he said he touched some of the things in the room and suddenly had that wound, he lost conscience soon after. We went back and we have to bring him in the Hospital Wing and we don't want any teachers to be involved which is unlikely because of Peeves and Filch. So could you please make Peeves cause some uproar somewhere far away so that Filch will chase after him and we can safely go to the Hospital Wing?"

Throughout Harry's entire explanation the Bloody Baron's face remained blank, except at the part of Harry being a Parselmouth which made his eyes widen slightly. Now he was unnervingly quiet, his face betraying nothing.

After what seemed like an eternity, the Bloody Baron answered, his gaze seeming to scan every little detail of Harry. "Interesting. It has been a long time since a Parselmouth has walked through these halls. I would gladly help you with your little problem as you are not only a fellow Slytherin but also have the noble ability to conserve with serpents."

Harry simply nodded, barely believing that up to now everything was going according to plan.

"Wait, here," the ghost instructed. "I will do what you say and when it is safe I will return and lead you to the Hospital Wing as you do not seem to know the way."

"Thanks," said Harry, feeling immensely lucky that the ghost was being so helpful.

The bloody Baron nodded to Harry and then to Malfoy, before disappearing by passing through a wall, leaving the Slytherins in complete silence.

"You know," Malfoy said, after several minutes of silence had passed, "that you are a really poor actor."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"First you wanted to curse me into Oblivion and in the next moment, after realizing that your attempt is futile, you suddenly started to compliment me? Seriously, Potter? Not to mention that, despite only knowing you for a short period of time, it was hugely unlike you."

"If you knew, why did you play along?" Harry questioned, puzzled.

Malfoy shook his head, clearly disappointed with Harry's question. "What was the Hat thinking when it sorted you into Slytherin? Well, to answer your question, I was intending to go anyway so why should I have said that I saw right through your little act? You would have become suspicious if I insisted to come anyway and Merlin knows what sort of trouble I would have gone through to make sure you wouldn't do anything stupid because you didn't trust evil Malfoy," he sneered. "Besides, I very much enjoyed your little act, it's not every day you are praised by the Boy-Who-Lived, Vanquisher of the Dark Lord."

Ignoring the taunts, Harry asked: "And why do you wanted to go so badly?"

"Yes, why should I want to go to a secret place, which only a Parselmouth can enter and which was most likely built by Salazar Slytherin himself? Surely, it would have only lead into some secret broom cupboard and not to a room, full of interesting things and useful information because the snake hasn't hinted anything like that at all," he deadpanned.

"Alright, alright, I get it," Harry angrily growled, not appreciating to feel like an idiot at all. In order to avoid another argument with Malfoy, he quickly changed the topic, though what he was about to say was a very pressing matter. "You won't tell anyone about that, right?"

He knew that Ron wouldn't even as much as breath a word about it but he wasn't sure at all if Malfoy would.

After recovering from his initial shock of having the 'evil' ability of talking to snakes and giving quite a lot of thought to it, he came to the conclusion that he couldn't change it anyway and that just like Ron, who had to deal with being a Slytherin, he had to accept it grudgingly. And maybe, Parseltongue was just like being a Slytherin, people would say you were evil because some in the past were and would judge everyone according to that.

That gave him hope, hope that after all the Dursleys were the wrong ones and not him, just as it had been before. However, even if his ability wasn't evil, he did not want the entire school to know. They probably were still shocked by his Sorting and he did not want to imagine the reactions, when they heard he was a Parselmouth on top of that. They'd think I am a Dark Lord in training, he thought dryly.

And while he detested the attention he received due to his status as the Boy-Who-Lived, he was sure it was preferable to the attention he'd received when people thought he was Dark and therefor evil.

"Alright, I won't tell," Malfoy's words jolted him out of his thoughts, his surprise had to be obvious as Malfoy added: "Of course, under the condition that you will let me into that room, whenever I wish."

Harry knew that it wasn't that bad a deal but nevertheless having to do something Malfoy wanted him to do reminded him of the Dursleys and here in Hogwarts he had no obligation to do so.

"Why should I?" he challenged. "And how can I be sure that you will keep your word?"

"Seems like you do have some Slytherin traits," Malfoy acknowledged. "Although you still lack true cunning. Let me tell you something about the rules here in Slytherin, usually no one will explain them to you, you will learn the soon enough if you aren't an entirely hopeless case, but I feel generous today and so I will tell you one of the more important rules in Slytherin.

"If one offers you something and you have something of equal worth, you should trade and personal feelings and such are not allowed to interfere in them, meaning that only because you hate that person, you should not break your word or decline, if the thing he offers proves to be useful. In addition, if someone does you a favor, you owe that person something, until you pay him back and of course that must be of equal worth as the favor the person did to you. If you fail to do so and it will become apparent, I assure you, chances are that people won't do you a favor ever again or are very unlikely to do so as you have shown yourself to be untrustworthy if it comes to the pay back of favors.

"No one in Slytherin does something unless it benefits him, the only exception is if you are friends with that person but then the benefit is the one that your friendship will be strengthened so actually it's not really an exception. Rules like that one are there so that we can at least trust our fellow housemates to a certain degree, even for the most cunning of us it gets tiring to not be able to trust even one word of the others, so that's why the rules are there. If you break one of them, the others will do the same to you too. It's really simple, if you stick to the rules, the others will too, if you do not, well, you can expect the others won't do either."

Harry nodded slowly, digesting all the important information Malfoy had given him, what he had said made sense so the only left question was: "Well, if that rule applies to you too and I am sure it does, you have some ulterior motive to explain me something as useful as that and the reason that you are generous is even more unbelievable than my flattering attempt."

Malfoy snorted. "You learn fast, Potter. But I assure that the only benefit I gained from telling you is the one that it will make our earlier trade so much easier if you believe me that I keep my word."

Harry didn't quite trust Malfoy and he was sure that there must be some other reason behind that. Malfoy could have easily blackmail Harry with his secret and make Harry do far more than simply allowing him to go to the secret room whenever he wished. Maybe, he knew that Harry wouldn't let himself be used like that, even at the cost of being branded as evil by the rest of the school and so wouldn't gain anything, except the hatred of Harry and the satisfaction of making Harry's school life a living hell.

Maybe that was Malfoy's motive but he doubted it, Malfoy might not like him, but he was sure that someone like Malfoy would use the advantage he had over Harry in a far more useful way. But then what was his reason? Maybe he really meant it but Harry wasn't naïve enough to believe that, perhaps it was some sort of twisted favor that Malfoy didn't took that opportunity in a way which benefited him more and it was a test if Harry had really understood the rules and thus has shown his worth which…which could make him an useful ally! Yes, that must be it.

Harry was still new to all those Slytherin things so he couldn't be entirely sure but that reason sounded plausible and he had no doubt that Malfoy would do something like that. And if that was Malfoy's motive then deferring to the deal would be most likely safe.

"Alright, I agree to your condition as long as you really keep your word," Harry said. His answer made a smirk curl on Malfoy's lips and suddenly Harry wondered if that really had been a good idea but then Malfoy replied: "Of course I will, I won't break the rules so easily and you should better not too."

"I won't."

The Bloody Baron chose that moment to appear again which made Harry wonder if he had been here for a longer time, again his expression didn't suggest anything at all. In his dangerously quiet voice he said:" I have done what you have wanted, Harry Potter. Now follow me quickly, I do not know how long it will occupy them."

With the ghost leading them, Malfoy and Harry swiftly carried Ron to the Hospital Wing. As they entered, the Bloody Baron was waiting before the entrance, they were greeted by a relatively old and stern-looking woman who gaped at the sight of Ron who was at that pint very pale, no doubt because of the blood loss which Harry had barely stopped with using a ripped off part of his robes as a bandage.

"What in Merlin's name has happened?" Before one of them could answer she had already taken the boy in her arms and quickly carried her to one of the white, clean beds. She mumbled under her breath, waving her wand around the hole and to Harry's amazement it slowly closed, the only thing left was a round scar where once the hole was.

The woman, she must be Madam Pomfrey, then hurried to the shelves at the back of the room, grabbing for one of the vials which was filled with a scarlet red liquor. She swiftly walked to Ron again and poured the content of the vial in Ron's mouth who in response coughed, his face slowly regaining its color again.

"He has to spend the night here, I am afraid. But I am sure that he will recover by morning. The potion is a very useful and strong one. Now," her expression turned even sterner which made Harry gulp, "how come that in the middle of the night one of you gets hurt that badly? It is not a wound one gets from falling off his bed."

"We couldn't sleep so we decided to spend some time in the common room," Malfoy quickly lied. "One of the Slytherins has probably left one of their possessions there and Weasley who didn't see it tripped over it which made it fly…explode, I am not entirely sure what it did," he was a very good liar, Harry noticed. The perfect amount of nervousness and shame so that it would look real but also not too much which would make it seem fake again.

"And then he suddenly had that wound," Malfoy concluded.

"And why did you not tell your Head of House first? It isn't a very good idea to wander around with only the three of you, especially when it is only our first day."

Malfoy blushed which made Harry nearly drop his jaw in shock. It wasn't only that it looked very out of place on Malfoy's face, what actually surprised him was the fact that Malfoy somehow managed to force himself to blush. How was that possible?

Maybe Malfoy tried to recall some embarrassing memories so that he would blush although Harry still thought it was very far-fetched.

"We didn't come up with that, at that moment we were way too nervous and shocked."

At Malfoy's explanation, her expression softened. Harry managed to refrain a relieved sigh coming from his mouth, they were out of trouble now.

Putting a semi-stern expression on again, Madam Pomfrey chided: "You are lucky that nothing has happened. And it's best if you keep in mind to always ask a teacher for help first. No, go fast to bed again. Tomorrow is school!"

After they had thanked her for her help and wished her a good night, the two boys quickly left the wing and were led back to their common room by the Bloody Baron. They didn't say anything until they were before the familiar stone wall again which was the entrance to their common room.

Before they went in again, Harry addressed the Bloody Baron: "Thank you for your help. We wouldn't have managed without it." He briefly wondered if, according to Malfoy, he owed the ghost now, however, his worries proved to be unnecessary as the ghost said: "You do not need to thank me nor do you owe me anything," his words made Harry certain that the ghost had indeed eavesdropped their talk. "Helping you is enough gratitude for me." Harry couldn't shrug off the feeling that the ghost meant more than he let on.

Harry nodded in response before the ghost vanished out of sight as the wall slid back to its original place. The two Slytherins were too tired to say anything and without further ado they collapsed on their beds, drifting to sleep in mere seconds.

This time Harry slept dreamless, despite his worries.

**A/N:** Alright, that's the hopefully last time I will ever write an angst scene (although I very much doubt it) because as you have obviously seen I totally suck at stuff like that. I wasn't quite sure until the end if I should just leave it out or not but finally decided that it wasn't worth the trouble to change the chapter accordingly so it would make sense without the left out scene. Although I do hope it hasn't spoilt your enjoyment while reading this chapter too much.

This chapter wasn't very exciting, I have to admit, though it will play an important role as the story progresses. And when I first wrote it, I didn't expect that Malfoy would have such a big role in this chapter but I guess that isn't something bad XD"

Please leave a review, if you could spare some time, and again I hope that you will find the next chapters as enjoyable as the previous ones. See you in the next chapter!


	5. Friendship

**The Silver Trio – Friendship**

**A/N:** Sorry for the delay, I could tell you my reasons but you probably don't care so I'll just go on. I can't thank you enough for reviewing, favoring and/or alerting this story. You are all as awesome as usual :D

The secret room will be explored more thoroughly but I couldn't fit it in the chapter anymore and I don't really think that they would go off exploring while Ron was hurt badly.

And if you haven't noticed it yet, the pace of this story is rather slow so I am sorry for that but I am unable to make it quicker without making it seem rushed so it is either this or that, I apologize if it bothers you.

Anyways, enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Because writing on this site is the proof that I'm J.K. Rowling…

* * *

Ron groaned as he slowly stood up, a sharp pain in his leg made him wince.

"You shouldn't do things too quickly. Resting is very important, if you want to recover well and fast, " a voice chided. Ron slowly turned to the origin of the voice, it was an elderly woman whose mouth was pressed in a thin line, reminding him greatly of Professor McGonagall.

"Where am I? What happened?" Ron groaned, looking around. From what he had heard of his brothers, that must be the Hospital Wing. How did he end up here? He was still feeling too dizzy to remember anything coherently.

"You were suffering blood loss due to a wound inflicted on your left leg. I have healed it, although I am afraid to say that the wound has scarred and I doubt that it will vanish as I have already tried. Luckily, your friends managed to bring you here, otherwise it would have… never mind, you should be glad that your friends brought you straight to me, even if they haven't consulted a teacher before," the woman said, whose name, Ron Recalled, was Madam Pomfrey.

Right, that weird room! He had been attacked by something… Madam Pomfrey had mentioned something about 'friends' so that meant that Harry and that git Malfoy must have brought him here, after he had passed out. Ron nodded contently to himself, it made sense.

"Am I allowed to leave?" he asked. Although spending the entire school bed in the rather comfy hospital bed sounded very appealing, he was anxious to see Harry and clear some things up, because stupid Malfoy had interrupted them and had thrown him into the fireplace. One could never repeat it too many times, Malfoy was a stupid git and bigot.

But Harry was alright, it had been just a shock to see his friend (he hoped Harry also still considered him one) hiss around and he sort of lost it. People, mainly his little sister and occasionally the twins and his mother, often told him what an insensitive idiot he was, but even he had seen the anguish and sadness his words had caused to Harry and if those words had affected him that badly, he couldn't be evil, unless, of course, it had been an act, but he doubted it, no one could have pulled off that sort of intense emotions.

Ron gulped. He sucked at apologizing and that was a grave matter, he had indirectly accused him of being a Dark wizard, accused him of being the same as the murderer of his parents. How was he supposed to fix that? He couldn't just go and say sorry for being a jerk and everything would be forgiven and they would be BFF, right? No matter how Ron would do it, he knew he would mess up big time and make things worse, it wouldn't be the first time.

Then suddenly a brilliant idea struck him. Hermione! She was a know-it-all, she ought to know how to do it the right way! Now he was even more eager to get out of the hospital wing. "Can I go?" he asked again.

She shot him a sharp look. "Are you sure that you feel well?"

"Never felt better," Ron replied, trying to sound as sincere as possible and ignoring that headache which felt as though someone had thrown several Bludgers at his head and that pretty hard.

Madam Pomfrey narrowed her eyes in suspicion, her gaze seemed to scan every detail of his face as though she could catch his eyes or his nose at lying. What she saw must have convinced her as she reluctantly nodded. "Alright, you may go but you have to immediately come back if you so as much as feel dizzy." He nodded solemnly, although he inwardly thought: _Hell no! She's worse than Mom!_

Before the over-worried nurse could change her mind again, Ron was already gone, searching for other First Years. Luckily, it didn't take long. A chubby-looking boy, wearing Gryffindor robes, clumsily tried to put all of his books, which were spread out all over the floor, back in his bag, but with little success. Ron approached him, relatively sure that he had seen him in one of his lessons, and crouched beside him, grabbing one of the books and tucking it in the boy's bag which made the boy look up, meeting the gaze of Ron.

But his eyes soon went down and spotted the Slytherin's crest on Ron's chest, the reaction was immediate. His face went as pale as a ghost and his eyes widened, a pitiful squeak escaped his throat and in his shock, he let all of the books he was carrying drop. A particularly heavy book hit Ron's foot, making him curse and wince in pain.

"Bloody hell! That hurt!" he hissed, grabbing his aching foot.

"I-I am so-sorry," the by stuttered, his eyes as round as donuts.

"Never mind," Ron said through gritted teeth, trying his best not to look too angry and dismissing the apology with a wave of his hand. "Do you happen to know what we have now?"

"B-but I-I thought that each H-House had a d-different schedule," he continued to stutter, his eyes frantically searching for someone to save him. Ron slapped his forehead, startling the nervous boy. Stupid, stupid. How could he have forgotten something as simple as that. Perhaps, his condition was even worse than he had first thought.

"And I thought that lessons were over and that dinner is in one hour," the boy said, having finally ceased his annoying stuttering,

"Really?" Ron asked, startled. He had been out cold that long? Well, it had been a long and tiring night, even without a git throwing him in a fireplace and then getting nearly killed by some mysterious being , so he shouldn't be too surprised by that.

At Ron's question the boy immediately started to panic again, he ducked his head and his hands were place in a protective manner. "I-I'm s-sorry. I m-might be wrong. M-my grandma always says t-that my m-memory is l-like a cauldron with t-too many holes." Merlin, what was wrong with that boy?

Ron took one step towards the nervous boy which made the Gryffindor step back in return. Ron raised one of his eyebrows. "Do I have something nasty in my face or why don't you want to be near me?"

The boy flushed. "It's, well," he stopped, toying uncomfortably with the hem of his robes.

"Yes?" Ron impatiently urged him to continue.

"You're a… Slytherin and I'm a no-good Gryffindor, so it's just-"

"I'm not like the other Slyherins," Ron growled, remembering that Harry was a Slytherin too, he added: "Not every Slytherin is a git, although you should look out for Malfoy."

Ron was sure that he'd never forgive the git for nearly killing him, too bad that he couldn`t put Malfoy in trouble for that, with Snape being the Head of House, one option was already out. And talking to the Headmaster would be sort of weird and awkward and the Ministry (seeing as an attempted murder was an issue one could bring up to them)… forget it, the Malfoys would bribe their way out of trouble. Ron scowled, damn the Malfoys and their through illegal means achieved money.

"Are you alright?" the the boy timidly asked, when he suddenly saw Ron's expression darken.

"Yes," Ron reassured the boy. "Err…what's your name? Mine is Ron Weasley." Except for Harry, Ron held no hopes that he could befriend any of the other Slytherins so becoming friends with the Gryffindor boy wouldn't be bad, even if he was a bit weird.

After hesitating for some seconds, the boy replied: "My name is Neville Longbottom."

"Longbottom? Hey, aren't your parents Aurors? My parents told me a bit about them."

Neville suddenly had a funny expression, his face pale again (had he some sort of sickness?). "I-I have to go. There is a lot of homework I still have to do. Bye!" He forcefully pushed all of his things in the bag, although some books still stuck out and were close to dropping out again, and practically ran away, leaving a confused Ron behind.

He blinked. "What?" Alright, Neville really was a weird bloke.

He made his way to the common room, believing the Gryffindor's words that lessons were already over. On his way he met yet another familiar pair of Gryffindors.

"Hi, Ronnikins!" one of the twins greeted him cheerfully. Was it George? He couldn't be sure, until they addressed each other, usually they called each other with the wrong names to confuse people even more, it was a wonder their mom hadn't noticed it yet. She could pick the weirdest habits or other sorts of odd behavior of her children up, like the fact that if Percy flushed, his neck would go red and in his case, his ears would go red. Really, if she hadn't said it during one of their dinners, he'd never have noticed it.

"You shocked us big time, right Fred?" Fred said.

"Yes, has never happened to us before, we might admit that we are related to you," George said, sounding slightly impressed.

"You would admit that you are related to a Slytherin?" Ron asked indecorously, barely believing his ears.

"Well," George shrugged carelessly, "it pissed off Percy, especially after you threw a tantrum after his little speech-"

"Not that we couldn't understand you," Fred continued, thy enjoyed freaking people out with their eerie mental connection. "Everyone has that homicidal urge after being subjected to one of Percy's legendary speeches- And everything-"

"Or everyone," George added, "who manages to piss off Percy that badly that steam is coming out his ears,-"

"Quite literally, after a rather unfortunate accident."

"-belongs to our family and-"

"-has a special spot in our epic hall of badass pranksters, Slytherin or not."

Ron had never expected that anything the twins said would ever manage to make him feel better, but it did. The twins' acceptance of his Sorting was unexpected but because of that it made it even better.

"Thanks," he said softly.

This apparently shocked the twins even more than him being a Slytherin.

"Whoa," Fred exclaimed, grabbing the spot where underneath his heart laid. "That's too much for my poor heart. What-"

"-happened to Ron and who are you, little Slytherin?" George questioned, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Ron's gratitude was gone in an instant, only to be replaced by great annoyance.

"Just go away," he snapped. "I have to go."

George sighed in mock relief. "That's our little Ronnikins," Red coed, ruffling Ron's fire red hair affectionately, making Ron scowl- He was not a freaking baby! Before he could throw a proper tantrum, George said." We have to go too. We have wasted quite a lot of time already," looking at his wrist in an imitation of looking at a watch.

"Yes," Fred agreed, "There is a lot of pranking to do and scant time. We are practically bursting with awesome ides of pranks we could use on our fellow students, after two and a half magic-free months."

As fast and sudden as they had arrived, the left, making Ron wonder if they have already mastered Apparition.

The rest of his way passed without any incidents. When he was right at the front of the brick wall, he quickly said the password ("Runespoor"). But before he fully stepped in, he glanced around for any signs of Harry and to his immense relief found none, so Harry was at least not in the common room, most likely in the dormitory then.

This was good, he wouldn't know what to do if he encountered Harry, except awkwardly staring at him. However, there were no signs of the bushy-haired girl either, although he could see her friend making herself comfortable in one of the armchairs surrounding the fireplace (how she managed to get one of those much wanted spots would probably forever remain a mystery of life).

Reluctantly, he made his way to the girl who looked up from whatever book she was reading, when she saw the redhead approach her. She raised one of her eyebrows, silently asking what the matter was.

"Err," he began awkwardly. How the hell did you have a civil conservation with a Slytherin? Before the answer would have been easy for him, you couldn't! But now things were a bit different…

"Do you intend to say something or do you just want to stand around?" Davis asked in a polite tone, despite her words.

Ron flushed, stuttering he said:" No, I-I want to…t-talk with Hermione…" Bloody hell, he sounded like Neville! The girl gave him a knowing look. Did she already know about the incident? Had Malfoy talked?

"Hey, Weasley!" Her voice jolted him out of his thoughts. "What?" he asked, feeling confused.

Davis gave a long-suffering sigh. "I've just said that if you want to talk with Hermione in private, she is in the library, learning."

Ron snorted. "Big surprise." She gave him a sharp look in response.

"Look, if you want to succeed, you'll have to be nice to her. She might be a bookworm but she is one of the best friends you could ask for. So try to be…polite," at her last words, her voice was filled with disbelief and doubt.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Ron asked confused and a tad bit nervously: "How do you know? Has Malfoy told you?"

Now it was Davis' turn to be confused. "What are you talking about? Why should Malfoy, out of all people, tell me something like that or even know about that in the first place? He doesn't seem to be the kind of sensitive person to notice things like these."

"Alright, I don't get anything anymore. What the hell are you talking about?" Ron snapped, believing all this confusing talk to be a plot of the Slytherin girl.

Davis narrowed her eyes at the rude tone. "For starters, you could ask politely. I do hope that this doesn't prove to be too difficult for you. Anyways, what do you think we are talking about?"

Taking some deep breath to not lose his temper again, he said with forced calm: "It's about Harry, something happened and Malfoy saw it too. That's why I was wondering how you know, when only the three of us were there. Did Malfoy talk about it?"

To his surprise, she flushed and said sheepishly: "Oh. I thought it was-" she paused, the color of her face matching Ron's hair, timidly, she continued, "-about you and Hermione."

Feeling more confused than he did all day and that said a lot, he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and asked: "What has that to do with me and Hermione? I just want to ask her for advice."

She waved his question off. "Never mind," and muttering under her breath, she added: "Merlin, is he dense…"

Not aware of Davis' remark, Ron simply said: "Thanks. I will go now."

"Alright and good luck at whatever you are trying to do," Davis said but Ron was already at the entrance and therefor hadn't heard at all what she had said. She didn't even bother to resist the urge of rolling her eyes, that Weasley boy was really impolite.

Huffing, she turned her attention back to the book she had been reading, inwardly hoping that the meeting between her friend and the redhead wouldn't be an utter disaster, from what she had gathered they were as different as ice and fire and most likely would get along just as well as them.

o.O.o

There was another reason why the library definitely wasn't one of his favorite places, aside of only containing for the most part boring books. It was the silence. Back at home with such a rowdy family as theirs things often tended to get loud and only at night, when everyone went off to bed, it would be quiet.

And although he would never admit it in a million years, as a little child and sometimes even now, that silence had made the night even scarier and used to make him crawl to his parents' bed, finally being able to sleep peacefully again, while hearing his Dad's snores and his Mom's calm breaths.

He let his gaze wander around, hoping to find Hermione soon so that he could be done with it. Ron couldn't spot her right away so he had to go deeper into the library, growing more annoyed with each passing second, when he yet again was greeted by the sight of even more shelves filled with books but no Hermione. Hell, he didn't even see any students at all. Most likely, because it was only the second day and dinner would be soon. Even for a bookworm and know-it-all like her, that was mad.

Just when he was about to give up, he finally saw something brown out of the corner of his eye, hoping that it was not a false alarm again like last time, when he had mistaken the hag of a librarian for her. That had been awkward.

He quickly went around the shelf to see Hermione sitting at a table, several books spread out on the able, her attention purely fixed on the parchment on which she was writing frantically. Ron's jaw nearly dropped at the amount of words. What sort of homework was she working on? Hopefully, not one that they had been given today when he had been absent, he thought to himself desperately. Wasn't first year supposed to be relaxed?

It seemed that he had asked the last sentence aloud as the girl's head shot up, dropping her quill in surprise. Her eyes met his and to his shock, he saw that her eyes were red and puffy from crying and still looked a bit moist.

When Hermione saw realization flicker in Ron's eyes, she immediately turned her head away, too ashamed that someone who barely knew her had caught her at crying or at least finishing crying.

"What happened?" the boy, whose name was Weasley and one of her fellow housemates, asked. For once she couldn't provide a reply to a question and remained silent. Parkinson and her gang had harassed her throughout the entire day in a mean but subtle way so that they would not catch the attention of the teachers. Her friend, Tracey, prodded her to tell a teacher but she had refused.

She didn't know the exact reason but telling someone else of her problem and letting them handle the rest felt like giving up and she didn't want to give Parkinson that satisfaction. But when she had attempted to explain that to Tracey, she had only earned herself an odd look. How nice it would be to have someone who would accept all her 'oddities'.

After one mean insult too much she had practically ran to the library, seeking for solace and peace and being surrounded by her beloved books which had never failed to bring a smile on her lips. Not wanting to go to the common room again and face the Slytherin girls, she decided that while she was there that she might as well do her homework.

Hermione had barely noticed the tears rolling from her eyes, until they had fallen on the parchment and blurred the with ink written words. After that she couldn't stop the tears pouring down her cheeks like rain and was silently grateful that no one, except Madam Pince, was there. She thought that she could start a new life here at Hogwarts but what she was suffering through was far too familiar, at least, she comforted herself, she had one real friend now.

But she wasn't going to tell Weasley that. After one minute had passed away in silence, Weasley had started to grow impatient and finally demanded: "Tsk! What's your problem?!"

"I cannot see what business of yours that is," Hermione said coolly, annoyed at the sudden intrusion of her sanctuary.

First, it looked as though Weasley wanted to say something, probably not very flattering but changed his mind and instead said: "How do you apologize to a friend you have accused of being a Dark wizard and being as bad as a person he probably really hates." If it weren't for his solemn and grim expression, she would have been under the impression that he was joking.

As it was, she hesitantly asked: "That friend of yours…are you referring to Harry?" As far as she knew the Boy-Who-lived was a kind person who was not used to all the fame his reputation brought on and definitely no Dark wizard.

Weasley looked surprised and after closing his mouth again, he said in awe: "You really know everything!"

Somehow flustered by that unexpected sort of compliment, Hermione softly said: "It was merely a guess. Do you want to tell me details or would you rather prefer not to?"

"It's not my secret to share," Weasley replied, suddenly looking very uncomfortable and avoiding the questioning look in her eyes. For once, Hermione squashed the curiosity which was starting to bulk up inside her and didn't press for more, realizing that this was a sensitive matter.

She nodded curtly. "Well, from what I know of Harry, he doesn't seem to be the kind of person who will hold a grudge for a long time. So if you apologize to him and show him that you are sincere about this and perhaps also tell him your reasons for your accusation, I am sure that he will forgive you."

"That's it?" he questioned, the disbelief written all over his face.

Hermione couldn't help herself but chuckle. She didn't know how or when it happened, but she felt a lot better than before. "Yes," she confirmed. "Some things don't need much preparing or other things."

Ron flushed. Now knowing the solution to his problem made him feel pretty stupid as it now seemed painfully obvious to him. "Thanks," he hesitated, but then, as he rarely was one to back down, asked: "Are you really feeling alright?" Hell, he was the last person to ask for those sorts of talks but he felt that he owed her something now and that was the least he could do for her.

She seemed to consider his question and indirect offer to talk about it but then declined and said: "Thank you for your concern, but I am sure that I can cope with it on my own," giving him a bright smile.

"Oh, well, that's good," he said lamely, somehow feeling like the biggest idiot right now and then hastily added: "Well, I better go now and fix that mess." At his last words, Hermione looked upset for a second but it quickly vanished, making him wonder if it had been only his imagination.

"Well, then I wish you good luck. I am sure everything will be solved."

"Yeah. Bye then," Ron said and quickly left, unaware that Hermione was watching his retreating back until he was out of sight.

o.O.o

There was not much left to say about this particular day. Ron, after his talk to Hermione, had immediately headed to the dormitory but had, with his incredible luck, ran straight into Harry, who was on his way to dinner alone. An apology was out of his mouth, before he could even consider his words and he hastily tried to explain why he did this and that and that he didn't really mean those things at all, barely noticing that Harry wanted to say something too.

Ron only came to a stop, when Harry practically screamed and said that he understood and that he didn't mind it anymore. Ron felt like banging his head against the wall the entire night, barely believing all the fuss he had made about it, when it had been that easy and simple. So with the both of them being friends and happy again, they both joined the dinner, ignoring the annoying remarks of the other Slytherin boys, although he had that funny feeling that there was some sort of secret understanding between Harry and Malfoy or some weird stuff like that.

But he really wasn't in the mood to bring it up and perhaps initiate another argument between them, after they had just resolved one. During dinner he spotted Hermione and waved to her which she returned.

And when he went to bed, it was with a smile curling on his lips and before he departed to the realms of dreams, he thought, although it would be a long time before he would admit ever thinking something like that, that maybe life in Slytherin wouldn't be too bad.

He was unaware that similar thoughts were also passing through another Slytherin's mind.

* * *

**A/N:** Really, what's with me and that weird habitude to finish my chapters with the characters going to sleep?

Anyways, I know that there wasn't much action, again… But don't worry there will be some (or at least I hope there will be). It's some sort of long introduction right now.

I hope you enjoyed the Hermione/Ron bonding as some of you have asked how she will become friends with the other two and I suppose that this is already a beginning, even if this time there is no troll involved. And don't worry Harry will soon join the mess, namely trio friendship, too but again it will probably take a while, what with the slow pace of that story /sigh

Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and please review, if can spare a second or two. I might be able to convince the Weasley twins to let you, awesome reviewers, join the epic hall of badass pranksters. See you next chapter!


End file.
